Yesterday's Hurts
by Victorules
Summary: The SDC finds the last of a long-forgotten civilization and Team RWBY is thrown in the way. Her past catches up to Blake Belladonna and Harry Potter can't be bothered anymore.
1. Prologue - The mission

**I've held onto this for a long time. Kept changing small things around and told myself it would be ready some day. Then RWBY volume 4 came out and my copy of Cursed Child arrived, and I realized exactly how long it's been.**

 **Hope you will enjoy this as much as I have.**

...

In hindsight, Weiss should have known something was off the moment she received a message from Schnee Dust Company one Friday afternoon. Only high ranking employees could utilize that address, and only for serious dealings. There was SDC Customer Service, Administration, Delivery, and so on for every major department in the company to handle any issue. But none of those represented the unified front of Schnee Dust Company, nor properly conveyed all the power behind it.

She personally knew most board members, all of which would probably use their own accounts for contacting her. She had never heard of this Albert Cromwell, Head of Internal Affairs. However, the account used and being able to reach her indicated he was relatively high up in the company.

And just what kind of 'most urgent matter' would warrant asking to speak with her at her earliest convenience? SDC had people to fulfill any and every role she could think of!

Curious and maybe, possibly, just a _tiny_ bit eager to prove herself capable of handling her family company's problems just like her sister, she had responded with all the proper courtesies and a time when she could easily slip away into solitude within her team's dorm room.

On the phone, Mr. Cromwell had succinctly informed her of a problem currently halting work in one of the richest mines their Company had found in decades. A problem that, he insisted, the media could not be allowed to learn about. And one that she was their best resource to solve quickly and quietly, since the many assets that commonly dealt with _unusual and dangerous_ circumstances were occupied elsewhere.

She knew that meant Grimm. But one did not throw that word around in poorly fortified installations without expecting a panic.

In an off-hand manner, he mentioned the possibility of taking her team of Beacon students along despite not having been made leader. Seriously, how come everyone and their mother knew about that?

He expected her assistance would not be required on-site for more than a day, and would explain the specifics upon arrival personally. A comfortable sky-barge would be provided and would take a maximum of three hours from Beacon's air dock to the mine. It would also wait and take her straight back afterward.

Most importantly: Mr. Schnee had been breathing down Cromwell's neck to fix the situation.

That meant her father´s eyes were on the mine.

That meant she had a chance to redeem herself.

Her father had not made any attempt to communicate with her since the day she arrived at Beacon. This was the kind of silence that spoke of displeasure and disappointment; the kind that left her stewing in anxiety and shame until he felt she was properly chastised. She had become very familiar with it through the years.

In fact, his silences usually conveyed more than their tense, commonly short, conversations.

But she couldn't hold it against him. Father was an extremely busy man, and seldom had the time to sit down and educate her on all she needed to become. From an efficiency standpoint it was only logical, reducing time wasted with her allowed him to take on more work and discipline her simultaneously.

Weiss took a deep breath and got back to checking Myrtenaster's mechanisms.

She would resolve this issue where no one else could, and show her father all her training had not been a waste. She would be just as good as Winter.

And so, by the time her team got back from last-minute essay submissions at Professor Oobleck's office, they found her standing just out the door with a weapon on her hip and a suitcase in her hand..

…

In the better half of an hour her teammates had interrogated her, stolen her scroll, geared up, and enjoyed the last minutes of Pizza Day in the cafeteria.

After reassuring Ruby that no, she had not forgotten about them and she had not been about to go into a dangerous situation without her partner - she had accepted her as leader a few weeks ago, but the poor girl was far too gullible for her own good - she sat in her bed and refused to acknowledge the sisters as they theorized wildly on what their 'secret mission' would entail.

All inspiration came from spy movies, of course. Blake offered occasional input whenever their imagination ran too wild by reminding them they were training for monster-hunting, not crime-solving.

The barge landed a few minutes after they arrived at the platform overlooking Beacon's cliff. Such a sleek, luxurious model seemed small when compared to the academy's own airships, which were currently carrying students and staff to the city below, off to enjoy the weekend, but was still larger than most vehicles of the same purpose.

Said purpose being the safe, pleasurable, and swift transport of wealthy passengers.

Their bags were taken by a handsome young man quick to smile and quicker to bow. The lounge they were led to featured leather seats and a holo-screen with more surface area than their bunk beds.

The flight attendant offered drinks and food sufficient to make Ruby loudly regret going to the cafeteria before boarding and Yang suggestively declare she saw only one thing that might interest her.

To the sides there were a coffee station and a liquor cabinet, fully stocked, as Yang noted. She earned a deathly glare from Weiss.

The sisters finally stopped bouncing in excitement thirty minutes into the flight. After squealing at anything and everything within the cabin and restroom, and the admittedly fantastic view granted by the large windows, they left a loud action movie on the screen and dug into the piles of pastries their flight attendant delivered. They marveled later when the man offered hand towels for their messy fingers and - _ugh_ \- faces.

Blake had been in a bad mood for no reason since leaving their dorm. She refused any comfort and settled in a corner, book in hand, glaring out the window or at the polite young man. It fiercely irritated Weiss, who had expected the quiet girl to not embarrass her in some way.

She wondered absently how bad an impression she would leave with the crew.

' _They don't matter', Weiss,_ she thought with a sigh. _'What they think will never reach anyone important.'_

Quickly they left behind the enormous structure that was Beacon Academy. On one side, the red tones of Forever Fall were visible by the horizon. On the other stretched the Emerald Forest, all the way to the mountain range that enclosed it. It was very beautiful if you ignored the fact that many a student like her had been lost down there.

The green masses surrounding the city turned sparse beyond the mountains, enormous black creatures far below stretching wings but predictably ignoring the aircraft, and eventually dry-brown land became the norm. No sign of civilization was visible as they began their descent.

Almost two hours of annoyed boredom broken only by the sisters and fantasizing about her dream team later, the flight was mercifully over.

She had not spotted their destination until they were only a few hundred feet away, whole buildings camouflaged with such care that the landscape seemed to stretch undisturbed right over them.

They touched down inside what looked like a small military base. Enclosed by a twelve-foot-tall wall dotted with weapon emplacements, stood a handful of prefabricated structures and a landing pad. The place could be easily defended or quickly abandoned as the situation demanded.

Out here, with no natural defenses, it couldn't afford to be anything else.

Men and women in a variety of desert-themed SDC uniforms were milling about. Around the walls were the guardsmen, wearing combat suits and carrying rifles. Some workers looked frightened and others desperate.

She knew most work had stopped. From the look of the people surrounding them, she could guess their pay had too.

The pilots and the attendant wished them luck and explained they would remain in the outpost until their mission was done. Men in polished armor stood at attention to welcome them on the ground.

Dry, warm air hit her like a full-bodied slap as she stepped outside. There wasn't a cloud to be seen and the sun was mercilessly hot on her skin. Weiss imagined this was the usual weather in the middle of this arid land.

A thin man approached them quickly from the edge of the landing zone.

He wore dress pants and shoes and a buttoned shirt. Pale blond hair, with some gray on it, cut short over a weathered face. He moved quickly despite using a cane to walk. With small brown eyes and a thick jaw, he looked to be well on his way to being a grumpy old man.

"Miss Schnee, welcome," His voice was rough but his tone was polite, if distant. "I'm Ernest Howards, I run this place." He extended a large hand. "Pleasure to meet you."

Her team stood behind her, silently enduring the disbelieving stares from all around. Not unreasonable, even she had doubted Ruby's skill when they first met. Unfazed, she took his hand and gave it a perfect, professional shake.

"Likewise, Mr. Howards." His skin felt weathered and his grip strong, like many military men she'd met. She had expected someone else however. "Mr. Cromwell informed me he'd be ready to brief us as soon as we landed?"

"Yes, please follow me to my office."

He hastened inside the structure crowned by communications equipment and team RWBY followed.

All employees stepped out of their way and stared as she walked in front of the other girls. She could feel three pairs of eyes on the back of her head, probably unnerved by the attention, taking cues from her.

She wondered if that's what being leader would have been like. It may have been disrespectful to Ruby's position, but when she turned to peek at the redhead out the corner of an eye the girl sent her a smile.

The elevator was barely large enough to hold five people. Mr. Howards leaned on his cane easily, unconcerned with the lack of space, while the girls tried to squeeze against the walls and preserve personal space. They followed him out the elevator, through a small waiting room, into his office.

Through the windows she could see an endless expanse of the hard, dusty plain they'd just landed on. A few picture frames were the only personal touch. The screen behind the desk was easily the most expensive item. And there was no Albert Cromwell anywhere.

Before she could inquire, Howards explained brusquely.

"Video conference, the man's got better things to do than sit around in the middle of nowhere."

Without further explanation he moved to his desk and pressed a few keys on the terminal there. The holo-screen came to life, it displayed a 'Standby' message for a moment before the image changed to the man she'd only seen on her scroll before.

Cromwell was a large man, but not rotund like Peter Port. Although his belly was imposing, his arms and shoulders were fittingly proportioned. Narrow eyes and heavy eyebrows above a big nose, together with a full moustache and beard, made her think he was used to frowning. The white hairs on his head, neatly combed, gave him an experienced look. His receding hairline didn't do much to distract from the severe appearance.

When he spoke, thin scars became visible on the side of his jaw.

"Miss Schnee, I appreciate you responding so quickly. I'll do my best so your team can return to Beacon before this day is done." He said this with a nod at the girls behind her. "As soon as the four of you sign the NDA's we can begin."

Weiss had expected that. He had been clear before on the importance of keeping the whole thing quiet. And they were, after all, in a facility far removed from other sign of civilization. She suspected Cromwell didn't just want to keep the press from learning what happened here, but that here existed at all.

Blake surprised her, again, with her crossed arms, firm glare, and confrontational tone.

"We're not doing anything until I know what you want from us."

Hours of silence and that's what she breaks it with, of course. Worse than being needlessly difficult and possibly insulting someone, was the way she motivated Yang and, thus, Ruby.

"Yeah!"

"It makes sense to know what we're doing before saying we will, right?"

A tense silence fell, while Yang looked to her then smirked at Cromwell, who frowned at Blake, who glared right back. Ruby tried to smile while subtly hiding behind her, and Howards seemed disapproving of them all.

Clearly, only she could be trusted to resolve any situation that required anything like human interaction.

On one hand, displeasing Schnee people of importance went against everything she'd been brought up to be. On the other, peer pressure.

Turning back to the screen, she spoke in a well-practiced voice.

"I'm sure there is a lot of very sensitive information surrounding this operation, Mr. Cromwell." She came across diplomatic and reasonable. With precisely as much respect as was due to his station but not more. "And we will, of course, handle it with proper care. Besides, there is little about our mining operations that I do not know already, or that I would not trust my teammates with."

That last bit was perhaps excessive. But for some reason she wanted the girls to hear it.

He probably needed their help more than their silence anyway. If not, she had thrown her one chance at saving her reputation away for foolish sentimentalism.

Thankfully the silence was not long enough for her stomach to ice over.

"As you say, Miss Schnee." The man on the screen spoke with a straight-to-business attitude. "Howards, leave us."

Straightening up, the other nodded.

"Sir."

Her team was silent. Cromwell's hard gaze was on them now.

"As you may have guessed, this facility is a secret. And many measures are taken to ensure it remains one." The lack of roads or nearby train tracks had given her that impression. It was not extremely rare of her grandfather's company to operate without the public's knowledge, or approval.

"Our competition, such as it is, was foolish enough to overlook our little treasure trove here when they acquired mining rights in the region; being caught in their backyard would be awkward, at best."

For an economical empire stretched over most of the world, competition existed only locally and not for long. People were resistant to change, so a few decades of stubborn refusal to switch from a generations-old provider to the new and clearly superior one were to be expected here and there.

"Thus we cannot involve untrustworthy individuals or risk anything being leaked to the press."

Someone actually _hissed_ behind her, but Cromwell's eyes were on hers and looking away could be seen as weakness.

"Thirty-nine hours ago, a mining crew hit what they thought to be an underground cave system. At the same time, likely because of it, there was a spike of seismic activity." She did not like the sound of that.

"As per protocol, the crews were evacuated, but only a few workers came running out of the lowest level, screaming about 'monsters' on their heels. Nothing followed them out." Ruby made a distressed sound at the implication.

"We sent a drone in and found both the missing miners and what killed them."

He hit something on his side and the screen switched to display a distorted image in grey tones. An armored figure, humanoid, and countless behind it, stared unnervingly at them. A two-handed axe was raised against the camera.

"Every gun we can spare has been aimed down that tunnel ever since, no one has entered and nothing has attempted to come out. I contacted you once I found every resource suited for something like this was occupied elsewhere or would take too long. My men can hold the line just fine against most of the local threats, but a Search and Destroy into the unmapped underground without heavy support is just asking for a bloodbath."

There was no face behind the greathelm, no writhing shadow creeping from the visor slits. Only an inexplicable emptiness.

"This is your mission: enter the mines, eliminate all hostiles, and investigate what lies beyond them."


	2. Buried Alive

**Still not sure that I should split this one up. I just don't like the idea of going straight into an 11k word chapter. I am trying to have the prologue put the characters in place and use this one to introduce them and the situation. Then I got to writting and things got a bit out of hand. Not too happy about that but I like the result.**

 **Dividing also gave me more time to write the next one, so I could have some sort of regularity with my updates.**

 **But then, and that's five seconds ago, I thought: people do not appreciate the wisdom behind YOLO enough.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

The mines were not what Yang had expected.

On the way, Weiss had been filled with anxious energy - and totally denying it when Ruby tried getting her to relax. They took an all-terrain vehicle a half-mile to the edge of an large hole in the earth and peeked down.

Machines she couldn't picture had dug a cylinder out of the ground wide enough to fly a Dust-plane through and deep enough to need a cage lift. Maybe a hundred tunnels had been carved into the earth, accessible through the many rings of metal catwalks the elevator's side doors opened to.

Miners were visible in the higher levels, moving carts loaded with dirt and crystals of every color around. All turned with relief at the team riding the elevator down, who knows how long they had been forced to keep working in fear of whatever killed their co-workers and caused all operations to cease in the lowest tunnels.

Yang supposed she could sympathize with them. These people had probably never seen Grimm in their lives. Trying to go about their routine with the threat so close by couldn't have been fun. Many guardsmen also stood around, armed but calm.

They arrived at the bottom of the excavation, Weiss wasting no time in taking the lead and walking confidently toward the entrance guarded by a pair of men holding rifles, who did not look as much at ease being the only people in the bottom level.

"Who is in charge of you?" The Heiress demanded. The guards had probably been informed on whom exactly they were expecting; they looked more scared of the girl in the white skirt than they did of the monsters they were watching out for. Yang snorted at the thought, it got her a reproving look from Blake at her side but she chose to ignore it.

"Sergeant Taylor, ma'am!" one of them replied with a salute. His face was completely hidden behind his helmet's visor, but he was clearly uncomfortable. "He told us to give you this in case you needed any support down there."

He removed a bulky radio from his hip and extended it to her.

"You'll also want these." He let his rifle hang from its strap around his shoulder and lifted two big lanterns from a crate next to him. They had a bulb the size of an egg behind a glass casing as wide as a dinner plate, and a big handle ran along the top. "If the lighting's gone, it'll be pitch black in there."

Also in the crate Yang could see harnesses with smaller lights secured on the front and helmets to match. She could guess why the man had chosen not to offer those.

Weiss looked at him as though he was the stupidest person on the planet and walked through the entrance, head high and stride confident.

Blake sighed and walked after their teammate without sparing the guards a glance. Ruby hurried to take the radio and lights from the guard's still outstretched hands and offered an apologetic smile. Yang gave them a wink and followed her sister down into the tunnel.

Ahead they caught up. The seriousness of the situation dawned upon them away from the sunlight and noise. They were here to kill Grimm, and away from the eyes of Schnee employees their lightheartedness slipped away.

Team RWBY drew their weapons and moved forward. Ruby managed to clip the radio to her belt and one of the big flashlights at her back while Yang carried the other.

Some tunnels were straight and narrow, and so long their light could not reach the other end. Others turned so sharply and frequently she had to jump around a corner every few meters.

Much of the lighting equipment had been destroyed either by the quake or the miners fleeing, and she was grateful to the troopers for their thoughtfulness. There was no railway and minecart like she'd seen in the higher levels.

In some places the walls and ceiling were so cramped Ruby had to collapse her scythe, and they squeezed through one at a time. Their footsteps echoed ominously, and they moved closer together as time passed without realizing it.

And in such confined spaces, it was only logical to have team RWBY's brawler take point. No matter how much she teased her teammates for being afraid of the dark and tried to lighten the mood, she hated it.

Her heart beat just a little bit faster as she advanced before her team. One sweaty hand pointing the light ahead of her and another covered by her golden gauntlet. There was a horrible smell in the air and it was hard to take a deep breath. A tiny part of her worried for her baby sister, who was forced into a heavy weapon role at the back of the formation by the suffocating walls.

' _I'm being ridiculous. The only way at her is through me.'_ She thought to herself. _'When's the last time something got through me?'_

That brightened her up a bit. Whatever had killed the miners was in front of them and since they had yet to see the tunnel branch off in another direction, being surrounded was still impossible. She stepped more confidently around the next turn-

-on somebody's hand.

Yang would forever deny the high-pitched squeak that came from her throat.

She barely stopped herself from firing into the dead body under her foot. Her teammates rushed forward but did not relax when they saw what caused her reaction. They had known the bodies had not been collected, and huntsmen were no strangers to violence or blood, but it was usually the soulless monsters that did the bleeding and not terrified, defenseless people.

The Faunus, for Yang now saw his furry ears, had a hole in his chest. He was reaching forward with an arm as if trying to crawl for the exit. The stench here was so bad she gagged helplessly for a moment. It shook them all.

Except Weiss, apparently. She leaned down and spoke in a quiet, cool voice.

"A sword or spear, straight through the heart. No other wounds or unnecessary mangling. That's even more unusual than not pursuing prey."

Blake's reply was an angry whisper, and unexpected by all three.

"How can you make people work in a place like this? And not care at all for their lives?"

There was a moment of silence, "This isn't exactly a regular occurrence!" Came the reply. "And I was trying to be professional, there is nothing we can do for them now."

Before the argument became louder, Ruby intervened. She walked between her teammates and around the body and forward, looking at the stretch they'd entered. Her team fell silent.

It was the most spacious they had so far seen this tunnel grow into. A few other bodies littered the ground. Little light bulbs had been fixed to the walls or ceiling, and illuminated the tunnel almost sufficiently.

Far ahead was a great pile of rubble, high enough that they would have to bend their backs to go through - some machine almost buried under heavy rocks. Another worker lay there, face down; the killing blow almost split him from shoulder to waist as he tried to flee.

Beyond it, the tunnel, with unnaturally smooth walls and wider than before, continued for a ways then bent to a side. It looked man-made, but it wasn't, according to the old man who gave them the mission.

Yang was unnerved. She had expected an action-filled descent through a mine and being back at Beacon in time for dinner. Hours of silent tension and walking over corpses were not her thing. She was moments from firing into the dark and have the monsters come at her like she was used to.

A small hand on her arm stopped her. She turned to meet Ruby's worried silver eyes. Her sister knew Yang did not like showing insecurities, and tried to help without putting her on the spot. They shared a small smile before she dropped her hand and reminded them all she was their leader.

"So, they probably came out when the workers stepped beyond that turn, and went back down after…" She faltered, as any fifteen year old girl surrounded by carnage would. But she clenched her tiny fists and went on. Her face turned into a frown, thinking. "They had to be defending something, right? Most Grimm tend to chase people down a long way once they spot them, but these turned around really quick."

Her team gave various forms of agreement.

"Okay, our mission is to clear them out; and since we know they'll come, at least, this far, I think we bottleneck them right at the turn and gun them down. If there are too many Weiss can slow them down or we retreat past the rocks. Piece of cake." She turned to the heiress for confirmation and received a curt nod.

Yang loved seeing her sister grow into her position. She followed without question. Everyone else accepted immediately, it seemed she wasn't the only one this place was getting to.

"Then, let's go!" With that, she led the way over the collapse.

Both of the great lights were planted on the rubble, and they were so potent she could barely see their shadows on the ground ahead. They walked once again in formation. There were no bodies on this side of the rocks, and Yang felt some tension leave her. It was surprisingly less grating on her nerves now that they had a plan.

Yang turned a corner, again. And faced about two dozen suits of armor arranged along each wall, broadswords, halberds, axes and maces held to their chests.

With a great creaking noise, their helmets turned to her right at the same time.

She had a second to see the metal they were made of was ancient and rusted, mail links underneath the heavier plate hung limp or was missing in places. At the top of the helms was a piece of metal that might have once held feathers but now only looked out of place. A particular mess of rust on their breastplates must have been engravings or a coat of arms.

When they all took a perfectly coordinated step towards them, Blake was the first to react. Gambol Shroud shooting holes into the closest one's helmet easily, but the armored figure ignored these and kept going. Yang did not let the sight disturb her as she cocked her fist back. Ember Celica was no peashooter.

Explosive rounds empowered by explosive Aura were not so easily ignored. The first suit was blasted apart, the torso ripped open and glowing hot as some limbs came off completely. Instantly she noticed the suits were empty, as if they were possessed by ghosts like in the movies.

The many shots that followed carved a path of searing scrap metal halfway to the next twist in the tunnel, from which more armor-monsters were appearing. The survivors did not seem fazed by the show of force. They came forward in a steady trot, their footfalls as one, weapons held ready.

She did not realize she was yelling nonsense until the twenty-four rounds of her gauntlets were emptied.

"Run and gun!"

Ruby called for a retreat as she opened fire, Crescent Rose's high caliber bullets staggering their targets and ripping metal joints apart, and they ran for the rubble pile. Weiss swung her rapier, streams of light flying into the armored bodies and doing slightly more to stop them than Blake's pistol. Yang let the spent casings in each gauntlet exit and reloaded with ammo straps from the pouch on her belt as she moved.

They stopped and turned right before the debris' highest point and unleashed all the firepower they had on the still closing wave of metal.

Weiss, seeing her attacks were mostly ineffective, set her rapier to ice Dust and switched tactics. She sent a lane of ice that froze some attackers' feet to the ground, but their armor was so old it came apart at the loss of momentum and the greaves separated from the rest, but they continued to crawl forward with their arms. Those behind stepped right on their fallen allies and continued to close the distance between them.

They were terrifying in their single-mindedness, and their numbers were not dwindling in the slightest. That suited Yang just fine. She would turn them into a melting junk pile.

Ruby yelled above the din, realizing only she and her sister were doing actual damage. "Walls, Weiss! Blake, stop shooting and get the ones who climb over them!"

They rushed forward, almost at once, Blake stopped some feet away from the ancient weapons' long reach but Weiss darted in, touching her sword's tip to the ground and retreating from the explosive growth of ice as quick as a snake.

The ice wall reached the armored chests, some unfortunate ones were even imprisoned by it, and the creatures began breaking them down with their weapons while some pulled themselves over clumsily and fell face first on the other side. Still, the projectiles downing many at a time were not enough to hold them back.

"Don't shoot the wall! Blake, Weiss, the climbers! While they're down!"

Slicing and stabbing those who had yet to stand, they burst into motion, dodging the strikes of those that rose fast enough or reached them over the wall. Her partner's cleaver proved a lot more effective at doing the sort of damage needed to put them down, until Weiss stepped back from the melee and began using Dust.

The sisters at the high ground reloaded and unloaded as fast as they could manage from the higher ground. When the ice barrier was eventually overcome, another rose a few feet closer.

"Stick to the plan!" commanded Ruby, and they did.

For what felt like an hour but could not have been many minutes they stuck to it. Blasting and cutting apart the endless assault and losing as little ground as they could.

Yang fell into a pattern after its third repetition. Twelve one-two's aimed at a slowly lowering angle and timing her reloads with Ruby so the suppressing fire didn't stop for a moment. Her blazing rounds and Weiss' Dust burned into her retinas until she could hardly see anything else.

The din of battle numbed her thoughts. The horde did not slow, grow or learn, it charged endlessly over the flattened remains of those who fell. A wall broke and another instantly rose behind it.

Distance closed, ammo ran low, strength waned.

The stream of armor coming their way stopped so abruptly that Yang wasted her last shot on upsetting the piles of shattered metal before her.

Weiss abandoned all pretense of decorum and fell on her knees, stabbing her sword into the ground and resting hands and face on the pommel as she tried to calm her breathing. Blake was only slightly better off, slouching on the tunnel wall, her visible skin glistening with sweat in the artificial lights.

Her gauntlets had become uncomfortably hot on her wrists, so Yang opened the loading mechanisms to vent at least some heat, and let all her spent casings clatter on the rocks under her feet. She checked her pouch out of habit, even though she somehow knew there was no ammunition left. Ruby went to her teammates below to ensure they were uninjured before gathering her dropped clips and reloading them with the bullets from her belt.

Practical and fashionable, her brain sluggishly registered.

Everyone looked exhausted and still shocked, even Ruby's excitement was muted. The fight had been too long to end so suddenly. And all the spent red Dust had heated up the air, making her feel sticky even though she had not been pirouetting and slashing like her teammates.

Taking a deep breath to center herself, she tried to help as she knew best.

"So… That was scrap." Nothing to write home about, she'd be the first to admit, but she met the stares with her usual unwavering grin until the silence stretched too long. "Come on! Nothing?"

Ruby giggled a bit while putting away her ammunition. She then went to help up Weiss, who was busy staring incredulously at Yang to immediately notice her team leader. Blake was now leaning against the final, ruined, icy wall, black hair pulled over one shoulder to try and cool down.

"Come on. Let's find out where these things came from and go home. I doubt any remained behind, but you two stay in the back just in case. Good job, everyone!"

Her sister was such a good leader. Take that, Weiss.

Wading through the waist-high scrap heap was slightly disturbing when she would catch an untouched helmet staring at her or immobile fingers brushed her legs, and they found the wreckage had spilled beyond the next turn, where the first shots had been fired.

But everything after that was clear, the only hint of something's presence now were the many footsteps in the dusty ground. Blake carried now one of the handheld floodlights, Ruby had the other, and the powerful beams were more than enough to light the way.

After the numbers they had just faced, Yang was not too worried of anything that could still be waiting for them. But Ruby kept telling her to slow down whenever she began moving too far ahead in her eagerness to be done and her post-victory high. They continued to move downward. The turns came so often that it seemed undeniable this tunnel was shaped like a very wide, blocky spiral, lower at the center.

Until it ended, quite suddenly, and opened into a chamber larger than Beacon's cafeteria with a single column in its center.

She froze in her tracks so suddenly that her sister bumped into her back. Then, one by one, her teammates came around and imitated statues.

Someone illuminated the walls and revealed them to be covered in large stone rectangles that Yang had watched enough movies to recognize as sarcophagi - or whatever the plural of mummy-containers was. Her heartbeat was the only thing she could hear.

Honestly, she would have preferred more haunted armor.

A soft "Wow" from her side broke the spell. But still they did not move, uncertain on what to do when accidentally running into an archaeologist's wet dream. Or any rational teenage girl's nightmare.

She blamed Uncle Qrow, of course. What kind of responsible adult let a little kid watch scary movies? Obviously she was going to deny being scared by zombies at the time! It was the grown up's' job to cut through kid's bullshit and not let them be traumatized at that impressionable age.

If she made it out of here alive, she was going to punch that drunk in the throat.

"Uh… Should we, um, report this?" Team RWBY's fearless leader said in a voice much quieter than normal, as if scared of upsetting something, with wide silver eyes and her bottom lip between her teeth. Someone gave her a nod without turning away from the crypt and she pulled out the radio meant for Weiss, extended the antenna, and tried to contact someone on the other end in a voice slightly louder than before.

Yang unconsciously stepped back from the tomb's - there was no way those were anything else - entrance and closer than necessary to her little sister. Blake snapped her jaw shut with an audible click and turned to the rest of the team, at a loss on what to do. Weiss moved her eyes, wider than they had likely ever been, slowly over the walls and floor ahead of her. It was hard to tell in the half-dark, now that their light had so much room to scatter, but she seemed just a bit flushed to Yang.

Nothing came from the bulky device, and Ruby looked at her sister for help. The mission had taken a turn for the unexpected, so she had no idea what they were supposed to do now. But she tried to steady her racing heart and respond anyway.

"Maybe there's no coverage down here?" Was the best she managed to deliver.

Ruby turned to look back the way they came, then at Weiss who was still drinking in their discovery in silence, then to her again. Yang tried to get her scrambled thoughts together and help her sister, who looked so lost.

"Why don't we… go back up a bit? Until you can reach someone else and ask them to come down here to take a look… or something?"

There, responsibility successfully deflected.

They began walking away when Weiss suddenly entered the chamber. Blake's hand reached for her but stopped, she turned to the sisters with hesitation in her eyes. Ruby took a deep breath and tried to reassure them with a smile.

"I can go make a call alone, you two stay here. In case... Uh." In case the dead decided to stretch their rotten limbs? In movies, prologues ended with rooms like this being sealed shut. They were probably thinking the same thing.

"Just in case." Her red cloak slashed the air as she turned and left.

Yang and Blake turned to each other, then to Weiss, and walked cautiously in after their wandering teammate. Weiss was standing close to one of the stone coffins. As they reached her they saw the barely-there writing she was analyzing so intently. Ancient letters of some kind, Yang supposed. Not the drawings she expected, depicting stick figures eating others alive.

Blake became interested after a minute and joined the white haired girl in her examination. They began whispering to each other, too low and uninteresting to hold her attention.

' _I'm being silly. This is the real world, not a horror movie.'_

She tried to study the crypt and put the thought of zombies out of her mind. Blake's flashlight was aimed at the carved stone the girls were examining, so she couldn't quite see to the other end even after she gave her eyes time to adjust.

The floor was covered in an inch of dust and dirt, it crunched and raised small clouds with her every step and stuck to her bare legs.

The ceiling was about four stories high, but it was the room's length that made her think of Beacon's cafeteria. There was no place to put a torch on the wall, or any other attempt at illumination to be found, and somehow the knowledge that this place was designed to remain forever dark made her desire to leave stronger.

With nothing left to examine, she looked at the objects this structure was built for. All were similar in design, the dimensions sufficient to hold someone of any build with room to spare, the bases angled so each stood somewhat inclined against the wall, and completely covered in the writing her teammates were still trying to make some sense of. Most were in long lines, side by side against the walls and facing inwards. But there was one in the middle of the hallway-like chamber.

Built into the rectangular pillar that supported the ceiling, it looked to be just as the others. The pillar itself was not much thicker than her arm was long. There was something about it, she had the feeling it was important for some reason. It was probably where the monster would be contained if she'd built this place. Would the others hold the same? Or maybe the good guys who were sworn to stop it?

Shaking her head to clear it, she found herself only a few steps away from the script-covered sarcophagus when she had been near her teammates only a moment ago.

Said teammates were now busy opening one of the stone boxes.

"NO!" She charged them. Grabbing onto Weiss and pulling her back. Had these girls lived under a rock their whole life? Did they not know what could come out of a grave in a place like this?

As if reading her mind, Weiss yanked her arm free, put her hands on her hips and looked at her as though she was stupid.

"What exactly are you afraid of? Do you think some dust and bones are going to kill us?"

She wanted to say yes. But with Blake also looking at her in amused exasperation, she doubted herself. There was intense curiosity in her partner's eyes. And Weiss was visibly trying to hold back excitement. Probably thinking of some way for her family to make money out of this find.

Both girls went back to their grave robbing as Yang took a few steps back, asking herself where her sense of reality had gone. With a great push, and a greater cascade of dirt, the heavy lid was removed. Her relief at finding only a pile of dust and some very old bones inside was almost physical.

Satisfied, Weiss began showing off what archeological knowledge she possessed. "According to Professor Ford, ancient civilizations used to bury people who did great things together in places like this. Usually with statues or some other way to note what they are remembered for."

She let their talk wash over her, tried to be absorbed in it, hoped it would calm her nerves.

"You're talking about a mausoleum, and I don't think this is one." Blake retorted. "Those were meant to be visited; there are no torch sconces or anything for illumination. Which means whenever people came here they carried their own light, not really the kind of thing you see at any memorial."

Weiss was not upset by the argument, which was surprising enough, she actually seemed eager to talk history with someone. 'Nerd', Yang almost voiced, but she didn't think she could produce the appropriate teasing tone right now.

"Then, maybe a crypt?" There was a happy kind of shine in her eyes. "Where they brought people to be interred next to their fellows or family?"

Something came into her mind that had been bugging her for a while, and escaped her mouth before she could think much on it.

"Why would you bury people standing up?" Wouldn't the bodies slide to the ground like that?

Each coffin was, in fact, angled slightly so the top touched the wall behind, the bases rose at the front end to prevent the stone forms from ever risking a slip. Up close, she could see they were separate pieces, not carved from the walls but crafted and then placed. The surprised looks at her clever input stung a little. Like she never said anything worth thinking about!

Blake quickly noticed her irritation and hurried to come up with a response. "I admit, I've only ever read about it in fiction. But it does seem a universal custom to lay the dead down, looking up. Supposedly to imitate a sleeping position." She turned and stared at the pillar in the middle of the room. "And that one would seem more important than the rest, odd for a family crypt."

All girls now turned to it, but no one approached it.

"Ancient Faunus rulers were sometimes buried with their trusted advisors and servants," Weiss stated after a moment.

And that made it worse. She very much doubted everyone in the room died of old age coincidentally at the same time to be entombed together. Thinking the people at the walls had been murdered as soon as their boss kicked it only made her think of angry ghosts. And angry ghosts possessing empty suits of armor.

Weiss continued unperturbed.

"There would be no real need for light since no one would ever come here. And the lack of plaques or statues could mean they were not extraordinary in any way. Just a king and his court."

But why would the monsters protect some king's tomb? Had these people somehow been able to control them or was she on the money with angry ghosts? She would have mentioned it, but decided not to keep this talk going. Hopefully someone would find a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything after they left.

Blake muttered her agreement then turned back to the scripture with her powerful light. Yang was glad to put the discussion behind, and wondered how far her sister gone. Maybe she should go join her. No talk of vengeful spirits and ancient sacrifices would be found with Ruby.

But Weiss seemed slightly upset about it. She looked at Blake, then back at the pillar. "If we are correct, he would have been buried with ornaments. Gems and precious metals, things that would remain after the body turned to dust." She looked at Blake from the corner of her eye, as if trying to bring the conversation back without looking too eager.

"Probably."

Weiss surprised Yang with the slump of her shoulders, as if someone had forgotten her birthday. Then she straightened again and walked with purpose to the lonely column.

Yang followed nervously, strongly tempted to drag away her teammate. They stopped well within arms reach of it, her two steps behind and fidgeting in anxiety but unwilling to be ridiculed again by protesting.

She looked down and saw the layer of dust seemed more disturbed than it should've been from Weiss's footsteps. Had she come this close when she had unconsciously approached it a minute ago? Or had someone else stood here not long before they had arrived? Her breath was shaky. Something was staring at the back of her head, but there was nothing there when she turned.

When did it get so cold?

Fortunately, Weiss distracted her before she could really panic. Unfortunately, she did so by attempting to open the sarcophagus.

After observing it for a short while, the shorter girl gripped the stone slab from the side and tried to pull it out of the way. Yang produced a small whimper and clenched her fists to keep from intervening. But no matter how much her teammate pulled, the stone did not budge. Weiss gave up and turned to her with a certain look in her eyes.

"Could you give me a hand?" Somehow that did not feel much like a request. She stepped back and tried to find words strong enough to communicate the magnitude of her reluctance. Weiss interrupted her before she even started. "Do we really need to have this conversation again?" With her hands on her hips an unimpressed look she continued. "Nothing is going to come out of it and attack you! Now you can stand there and tremble like a leaf in the wind or you can help me open this thing and see that I am right."

With that, she prepared to pull once again and looked at her expectantly.

Later, Yang could never really explain why she swallowed her trepidation and helped Weiss shove that glyph-covered piece of rock out of the way.

The fist she immediately threw, however, she could easily reason.

Yang grunted with effort. The lid resisted with magnetic-like force, so she pushed with all her strength and threw the stone too far aside so most of its weight fell on the other girl to balance.

Weiss gasped with alarm and backed away, doing her best to keep the thing from falling.

 _Someone else_ drew the greedy breath of the drowned.

The cold returned with a vengeance. Her sight dimmed and her knees shook. She was weak as that day she took Ruby into the forest. She met wild eyes as red as her own.

'CRACK!'

She had forgotten to deploy her shot-gauntlets, but the energy gifted by mindless terror empowered the attack. Her knuckles met and drove through the stone column behind.

Her counterattack brought chaos to the previously quiet room. And sounds she only expected to hear in a world-ending earthquake.

The sarcophagus vanished in an explosion of debris. The pillar gave way far more easily than she thought hard stone should, and as cracks made their way from the floor to the ceiling, large chunks of rock dislodged themselves into free-fall while smaller ones pelted her from so many directions all she could do was protect her face with her arms.

The pain was familiar. As was the adrenaline. Her panic became power like everything else in a fight.

In a second, the rectangular column split into fragments which fell towards the ground, standing for an instant before tilting like felled trees and raising clouds of destruction in whichever direction gravity sent them.

Yang barely managed to throw herself backwards and stay on her feet. Weiss tried to scream something at her, but the overwhelming cacophony drowned her words and she was forced to duck and weave and rush away from the rearranging stonework.

The destruction raised a cloud of dust all around them, forcing itself into her eyes and throat. Amid coughing and blinking furiously, Yang quickly raised her orange scarf and tightened it around her nose and mouth.

She tried to regain her bearings, and maybe find her teammates, but the dust was too thick and tears blurred her vision and the only light came from the lantern carried by Blake. The fact it was flashing around wildly reassured her the unprepared girl was, at least, moving. But there was no sign of Weiss.

"What is your damage?!"

Oh, never mind then.

But her stomach had been a ball of ice for the past ten seconds. Her hands were shaking in fear or fury since the moment she looked into the opened coffin and-

"Weiss, I saw…!"

What had she seen? A bad memory and familiar red eyes? Weiss sprung at her hesitation with fangs bared.

"Your own shadow?!"

Dark hair. Pale skin.

"There was some-"

"Some bug?!" That screaming was hurting her ears. Or was the ringing caused by the collapse? "Thank goodness you were here to protect us!"

Her teammate was furious as she'd never sounded before, but so was Yang, and what she really wanted was a target. She tried to stop her shaking... everything, really, and explain that they were under attack.

"You didn't feel tha-?!"

A stone the size of a car sailing over them.

Yang and Weiss turned to look as it flew by. Frozen, like people watching an airship about to crash and knowing nothing could stop it.

It crashed into the wall next to the entrance, sending bits of rubble in every direction. More fell from the roof. The ground shook horribly, it made her legs and hands tremble.

Yang and Weiss were far enough away to avoid any damage, but Blake's beam of light turned wildly for a few seconds then aimed somewhere on the opposite end of the room and became still.

"Blake!"

She rushed to where the flashlight shined from the floor. Or tried to, anyway. The ground was covered in debris of all sizes that her boots found when her eyes failed to. Still, she stumbled and squinted her eyes as she tried to find her partner.

"Yang…" Came Weiss' hesitant voice from somewhere behind her, but she did not turn. Because the light was not moving and Blake would have made a sound already if she had just dropped it.

"Blake!"

"Yang!"

And the darkness was pushed back by a bright, hot, red glow.

Now she turned from her search. Flames, fueled by Dust that could only have come from Weiss, licked up from the ground in a line. The trail of fire showed her teammate on the end closest to her, and something jumping away from the heat in the other.

The fire burned into her already abused eyes, and left purple stains in her vision. But some part of her had prepared since the first flying piece of masonry, so the next that was hurled in their direction now did not catch her by surprise.

It was clearly aimed at Weiss, but from its trajectory Yang guessed the source and tried to shoot at it before realizing she'd spent all her ammunition on the ghost-armor-things.

Fight-or-flight instincts sent her rushing her invisible target over rubble and fire, sparing only a glance at Weiss flipping gracefully out of harm's way. She squashed her fear at fighting the unknown, prayed for a second it would not eat her face, and blazed with sparks of yellow Aura as she reached her target's position. The light produced by her soul pushed back the surrounding darkness in every direction.

There was no one there.

She was sure the rock had come from here, and it wasn't like it could have thrown itself. There should have been something. Looking around showed her to be alone, lit like a torch and surrounded by shadows and a hidden enemy. Maybe not her best idea, in hindsight she admitted. Now whoever - whatever - she was fighting could see her while she could not.

It could have been lasting damage from the explosion of sound, or her own pulse rushing in her ears, but she did not hear the consequence of her blind rush coming.

She felt it, for sure.

A brick wall tackled her from her right. It smashed into her, lifted her from the floor, and crushed her against the unyielding stone of the wall above the line of coffins harder than a freight train. At least it felt that way, there was nothing there when she managed to turn her head.

"Yang!"

' _Good timing, Weiss!'_ She would have bit out, but there was not enough air in her lungs.

The girl twirled like a ballerina to avoid another piece of flying debris while sending beams of blue light curving through the air at something. The pressure abandoned Yang as suddenly as it appeared. It left her to fall on the top of a coffin, fail to find her footing, and land ass-first back on the floor.

She decided to blame a possible concussion and forsook her dignity to lie on her back a long second, before rolling to her feet in case some more architecture tried to murder her. Weiss was still throwing her spells and gracefully dancing around the improvised projectiles. She spun to throw an arc of fire parallel to the floor that illuminated the room.

And the humanoid figure in a light toned robe of some sort.

It thrust a palm at the advancing flames and the arc broke about a foot before touching it. Dust-fueled fire had the habit of burning on anything but air or water for the moments it took the miracle material to release all of its energy, unless it managed to set some new fuel source alight. The remaining segments seared past him and while some stubborn flames remained behind Yang finally got a clear look at their enemy.

Although the frame was lean, the shoulders were too broad for her foe to possibly be female. She would guess him to be a little taller than herself. He had a full head of dark hair. The pale skin she had seen already, but the high cheekbones made her think he was used to looking down his nose at people. His eyes were neither were not glowing red.

The nose itself also fit the image in her mind. It was straight, unlike many fighters who at some point got it punched crooked. His lips were pressed into a line and his jaw was not square enough to be called manly yet fit his face well. His brow was furrowed and his eyes squinted, probably trying to find his target through the fiery curtain all around him. He could not have been much older than her.

He looked like an angry rich kid. And that thought was easier to deal with than wondering how he came to be waiting for them in an ancient burial chamber and surviving the collection of two inches of dust. And that was a good enough reason to dislike a guy who threw her on her butt.

Still, the rich kid had Weiss at a standstill.

Yang had no more rounds to propel herself around the fight, so she rushed forward and thrust an armored fist right at his probably ego-inflated head.

His eyes snapped to her an instant before she reached him. Moneybags Jr. sent a small rock in his hand flying like a missile towards Weiss and sidestepped her attack before shoving a palm, the same one he stopped the fire with, at her chest.

Though it was rare to find someone else willing to fight with his own hands instead of combining a knife with an SMG and a bottle-opener, Yang was not in any way unprepared for such foes.

In the corner of her vision she saw Weiss interrupted mid-cast, bent and clutching her stomach where the fist-sized stone had struck. Likely also half-blinded by her own attacks and not expecting a small projectile after the barrage of boulders.

She used her other fist to punch the incoming arm on the wrist and forced it aside. The strike did not carry much force behind it, but she was instantly relieved when dust and rocks next to her were blown away as if by a huge hair-dryer with the sound of displaced air. She could safely bet that was what hit her the last time, but was not eager to test her theory.

Ok, rock-throwing, power-palm, rich kid. What kind of semblance was that anyway?

At first glance the move seemed to have some range, like a shotgun. Her immediate reaction to that idea was to grab and incapacitate him before he could aim a hand at her again. But her gut said she did not understand this foe and the she should not underestimate him.

When had her gut ever lead her astray?

A second later, her trust was rewarded as a small fireball materialized in the boy's hand and grew exponentially as it blasted in her direction.

She jumped away as Weiss closed the distance with a burst of white light, sliding forward on one foot like an ice skater and aiming to impale the probably-too-young-to-call-a-man through the chest. Yang blinked the spots out of her vision and took advantage of the diversion.

Just after he jumped backwards to avoid the petite girl's attempt at perforating him, and before he quite landed, she surged forward. Planting a foot firmly, she put her whole weight behind her blow and sent Young Master Gonna-Need-A-New-Face flying into one of the sealed coffins behind him.

Hopefully with a new cracked skull to ruin his selfies for a month.

Another burst of light and Weiss stood at her side and a step behind, her feathers looking a little ruffled. They stared at the new cloud of dust, with the heiress likely trying to calculate the chances of anyone remaining conscious after taking a Yang-class haymaker to the face. Yang was just admiring her work.

Confidently, she put her hands on her hips and turned to her sister's partner. "Think Ruby heard any of that?" Casual, cool, not thinking about the not-dead-looking mummy she just put down and what it all meant. Her heart beating like a heavy-metal drums solo was probably just due to adrenaline.

Ice-blue eyes, wide and filled with things she didn't want to talk about, met hers.

"Yang!"

By happy coincidence, Ruby chose that exact moment to arrive. The dust in the chamber had settled enough for them to see each other clearly even if she stood at the entrance and they at the middle. She realized suddenly that her Aura was still blazing from the panic clawing just beneath her cool veneer, so it was easy for her sister to spot her with the flashlight.

Oh, right.

Her smile vanished and she rushed to where the other beam of light came from.

"Blake!"

Ruby turned and rushed to the crumpled form of their friend a few feet from the exit. From where she was, surrounded by destruction, she could just make out a dark mass topped by the ever-present black bow. Ruby reached Blake and visibly flinched. She halted in place, all color gone from her face.

That froze Yang's blood, and for a horrible moment she almost stopped in her tracks, terrified by what could bring such a reaction out of her sister. Quickly, she reprimanded herself and accelerated her approach further.

Blake was covered in dust. It was particularly noticeable in her dark hair and clothes. The lamp was still clutched in her hand, luckily positioned to offer them some visibility during their fight. She was face down and completely limp, limbs spread like she had just dropped herself on bed.

There were no wounds visible on her beside random small scratches all over. There was no puddle of blood on the ground. Probing her neck with a finger proved useless, maybe because she wasn't sure where the pulse point was and her own heart was still racing.

She was breathing.

Bless her overdramatic, inexperienced little sister.

Carefully she turned her partner over, cradling her head like she thought doctors did. Her pretty face, grimacing, was covered in dust and dirt from lying on it. Her eyelashes were wet and her front had some more small cuts on it which she figured came from rocky shrapnel.

She found a slightly wet spot on the base of her skull while adjusting the hand that held it, along with a small bump. Yang figured after the first surprise attack shattered on the wall above her, the multitude of impacts overwhelmed her Aura and a piece knocked her lights out.

"She's ok!" Saying it helped.

Yang could breath again.

She turned to her sister, who now looked at her with the same frightened eyes. Somewhat self-conscious now, she inspected herself and found she was in much the same condition as Blake. She realized dust had made its way into some highly uncomfortable places, ignorable while pumped full of adrenaline but not anymore.

Ruby snapped out of her shock. Mostly. She stared at the devastated place she left pristine just a few minutes ago, then at the ruin of the central pillar, probably to Weiss for a moment, and then back at her.

"Yang…" Her voice was barely there. She stopped and tried again. "Yang, w-what happened?"

Glowing red eyes and a cold deep in her soul- _Don't think about it, don't freak out!_

Now it was Weiss who saved her, with a sharp gasp they heard easily and a noise like the whisper of wind. Action was easier than explanations, action was simple and straightforward and not scary. She carefully let go of Blake and turned quickly, Ruby placed a hand on her weapon and followed.

She found what caused the sound instantly.

The cloud of dust where she had laid out her opponent now moved like water. It fell from him like a discarded cloak and left him kneeling on the ground. His face was a grimace of pain, but there was no mark on the eye that should have been swollen shut. Somewhat insultingly, he paid no mind to the girls readying weapons.

Instead he was focused on the half-disintegrated skull in his hands. Its jaw was missing, as was most of the back so it resembled an eerie mask. It was a clear indication that someone had been put to rest in there so long ago that one sudden movement would erase the last trace of their existence.

He handled it carefully with his long fingers, but the edges crumbled into nothing at the slightest touch. He closed his eyes and shook with emotion; and that was enough for the skull to split through the face and fall between his fingers to join the dust.

Knuckles popped as his hands tightened to fists.

He stood, furious. His eyes opened slightly and analyzed the three huntresses. He looked older now, with sharp lines across his face as he studied them, her team tensed.

Weiss, still where she had stood next to her before Ruby arrived, took a small step in their direction. Just now Yang realized how separated she was from the sisters while they stood by Blake. She took her own subtle step closer, unable to handle the anxiety of being still any longer.

He twitched.

Weiss jumped backwards, the sisters rushed forward to try and regroup. But the man was upon their isolated teammate in an instant. One blink and Weiss was flying backwards at the wall, a half-formed blue glyph vanishing around the extended fist that drove into her stomach. Ruby's advance faltered for a second, she shifted her scythe and fired as Yang pressed forward.

Either her sister missed, which was very unlikely, or she was trying to hold him in place by shooting around him, which was annoyingly possible. The man stood unharmed as he turned to meet her. His stance was not what she'd expect of a melee fighter, too straight to duck or move as needed. With a wave of his hand, dust rose into the air and formed a thick, spinning cloud around him.

Yang was only a few feet from him when it rose and blocked him from view. She knew charging in blind was not smart, but Ruby and Weiss were each alone and she didn't want to risk this guy going after the possibly injured whitehead or her baby sister. So she shut her eyes and dashed through the immaterial wall, jumping into a sweeping kick aimed for where she last saw his head.

Her leg sailed through empty air and she opened her eyes a fraction, wary of getting more dust in them, to look for her missing prey as she landed. In the eye of the miniature storm, there was no light, but her hair was glowing brightly and she caught a glimpse of him coming at her. He had ducked, and lunged to grab her.

She took a step back and threw a hook as he overextended, his head turned with the blow and she threw another into his gut. He deflated visibly before she could punch the air out of his lungs but she felt her fist lift him from the ground. Still, quickly holding onto her gauntlet, he caught her next strike with surprising strength, stopping her movement cold and holding her in place.

The strength there surprised her, thought it shouldn't after he threw half the ceiling at her minutes ago.

With both hands locked by his, she tried sending a knee into his side only to be violently jerked in place, far too quickly for her to understand what had happened. Her arms felt as though another good pull and they'd come right off, her biceps burned, and the guy was looking right into her eyes with frustration.

Ember Celica crushed her hands painfully, like he'd just tried to rip the perfectly tailored gauntlets from her and only half-succeeded. It took less than a second to readjust them.

She tried a knee again before he could get another weird idea. He let go quickly and backtracked, the cyclone they were fighting in moved with him and she had to keep up or be swallowed by it.

There was no warning before a blast of fire came from their side. Red light grew in the darkness an instant before it washed over them. Yang, though very uncomfortable, was kept mostly untouched by her Aura. In front of her, a raised hand once more stopped the flame blast.

But the small particles floating all around them dissipated.

Yang paid no mind to her expanded surroundings. Last time, the man had thrown a fireball at her right after stopping a similar attack, but he had not thrown a second one yet. Her best guess was he could absorb elemental Dust and use it, so one would surely come now. Weiss, panting slightly next to Ruby, had probably come to the same conclusion, but Ruby had not seen the first skirmish and any rational person would think that shielding oneself from the blaze like that required some effort or focus.

Ruby would see an opening. And, as the fastest one in the team, would know she was their best shot at taking it.

She barked a warning when she heard Crescent Rose's rapport, but her sister was blurring past before any words left her mouth.

Mr. Frown spun, quicker than many huntsmen she knew, and barely avoided the lethal fifteen-year-old trying to cave his skull in with her scythe's mostly-blunt side and shaft. She spun, swung and kicked like a whirlwind at empty air as her target matched her speed with incredible reflexes and gave ground freely.

Ruby was handicapped by her desire to not kill, her attacks landed only occasionally and never decisively. At least he didn't look like he had the time to roast her little sister, jumping and ducking and twisting just enough to avoid getting hit.

A tiny part of Yang was finally forced to acknowledge this was not the scary movie she'd thought it was as she moved to flank.

He was clearly alive, for one. If the rocks he'd thrown around earlier were any hint, he had more strength than what he'd used against her. The guy's semblance somehow manipulated Dust of both lower and uppercase kinds for elemental or physical attacks. And he was holding his own against them with his bare hands, which would have been humbling for anyone other than Yang.

Another part of her got tired of calling him 'him' and named him Leonard.

He had a very 'Leonard' face.

Leo also had fire on his fingers.

All thought abandoned her and she raced forwards. Ruby had wisely decided to retreat a moment. She took a step towards Weiss, who looked more dirty and disheveled than Yang had ever seen her.

She pushed her legs harder, and almost reached her before fire exploded in her direction.

Ruby fired a round off her side and blurred out of sight. Yang's boots skid over the ground a short distance before she could reverse her momentum and jump back, heat forcing her eyes shut.

In the semi-darkness, seeing through the fire was impossible. But her sister was on the other side and needed her, so she tried anyway.

Not five seconds later, she spotted Ruby flying out of the conflagration with limbs flailing.

Yang caught her quickly, set her on the ground, and fussed over her like an overbearing mother. Ruby was distressed but unharmed. Her movements were jerky, wide eyes frantic as they searched for something the way she'd come. She struggled in her sister's arms. Yang didn't have a chance to ask before getting an answer.

"He took my baby!"

The fire lost its intensity, as whatever fueled it was exhausted. Only small flames here and there remained floating in the air. Their light was just enough to make out Leonard.

The ridiculous statement had clearly shocked him out of his anger.

Crescent Rose was in his hand, and there was an aggressive but unsure look about him as he split his attention on them and the sniper-scythe while trying to wield it. He found the trigger and barely recovered when the discharge kicked back.

Ruby whimpered. Her struggling increased and Yang held on tighter.

Weiss decided to take advantage of his distraction.

Once more ice-skating through uneven ground, she rushed in from his side and stabbed at him with a red flash. Apparently she had come to the same conclusion as Yang, or tired of her Dust being blocked and returned.

She had seen Myrtenaster's red charge blow targets three times as heavy four times as far. Leo caught the tip of the blade in his bare hand and went rolling back a few feet.

He wielded the scythe like a sword then, hand near the shaft's end as he traded strikes with Weiss with no mind to what that should have done for his balance.

But the weapon was not meant to be used like that, and the girl too agile to be hit. She spun and circled around him, darting in and out to whip her sword at him so quickly there was barely any chance for anything but reaction.

He caught on and swept a wide arc as he retreated. The longer reach forced Weiss to flip over him. The scythe's edge came at her where she couldn't dodge, but she summoned a glyph to reverse her momentum and landed back where the jump began. The massive blade arced around to pierce the stone floor.

He managed to pull it up and resume his defense, even if he was still swinging the thing around like a tennis racquet.

"You're doing it wrong!"

Ruby's anguish made the duelists falter. Weiss retreated and both fighters turned to the agitated girl still struggling against her sister, their expressions similarly incredulous.

In the moment of peace brought by their leader, Team RWBY caught a break as 'Leonard' looked around and at Crescent Rose in his hand with confusion.

Then he looked at Ruby, his face less hostile than anything she'd seen yet. Exhausted and wild, but confused as if only just seeing who he was fighting. Keeping an eye on the equally wary Weiss, he gripped the scythe with both hands and analyzed it.

Yang eyed him cautiously. Even with the poor lighting of both dropped flashlights, she could see things that were not immediately apparent before.

The long robe was shredded and torn, but struggled still to protect his modesty. He was drawing huge breaths through his nose, chest rising and falling quickly. She didn't even take a second to appreciate it before focusing again. His Aura was surely low if it was failing to protect his clothes.

His eyes were narrowed and his forehead creased like someone with a headache, oddly similar to a hungover Uncle Qrow, he turned to them occasionally, but always returned to the weapon he was turning over in his hands. A moment later they lit up with something almost childish, and he turned back to Ruby with poorly disguised smugness in his grin.

Something changed in the air between them.

Turning the weapon so it was aimed away from them, he lowered his body and twisted as he fired a round, almost losing his balance as the recoil accelerated his spin. He came out of it with a snort of amusement. She did not realize her arms had relaxed around Ruby until she walked out from them. Through her anxiousness she gave him a tiny smile, that adorable one that looked so young and innocent and happy and made Yang want to pick up and smother her every time.

She held back this time. Only the most heartless individual could attack something as cute as a puppy while it smiled at you like that. But a second ago they'd been fighting, so her guard remained up.

Leo smiled at her sister. Still breathing raggedly, still scrounging his face like the world was unnecessary loud and sunny. There was some relief in the upturn of his lips. She could tell he was about to plant the scythe on the ground and lean on it from his telegraphed movement.

The bullet came right before the 'bang'.

She had seen people get shot before. She had been shot before. She had never seen someone's Aura fail to protect so spectacularly.

Blood burst from his chest, unnaturally bright in the half-dark. It looked just like the Grimm blood they were all so familiar with, except it was coming from a person. She turned to spot the shooter.

"No!" Someone screamed.

Then came the rest of the magazine.

Schnee troopers were rushing through the entrance, one had a knee on the ground and a raised rifle, and the others were taking aim. A choked noise came from Ruby, and she looked back forward.

In the instants between the first shot and Leo falling, more bullets went into him. A few more sailed past his head as he collapsed. Thick, red droplets fell after him.

Then, silence.

A quiet piece of Yang's mind wondered why this had happened. Another caught Ruby's horrified expression. Old instincts took hold, so she turned her sister and held her tightly, burying her face into her chest. Her silver eyes were wide and confused, her lips moved but the only word she made out was "Help". Yang leaned her cheek atop her head and with her golden mane gave Ruby a curtain of privacy.

She didn't want to look at him, at the boy who would probably still be alive if they hadn't been at him since he opened his eyes. If she hadn't started that fight the first possible second…

From her new angle she found Weiss. She was visibly shaken, but took a deep breath and collected herself quickly. Glaring at the men, who stood trailing the flashlights on their guns around the room, she put away her sword and walked over to them. Somehow she just knew it was not the first time Weiss saw someone killed like that. The knot in her insides twisted again.

"A medic for my teammate, immediately." Her voice was less perturbed than that time they ran across someone's pet mouse in their dorm room. She gestured around the room. "Also, this place has already suffered enough, I want no one stomping around until the professionals get here. The Vytal Archeology Group will be murderous as it is."

She didn't level a glare at Yang, however. Which might have said she was not completely back to normal, but Yang was too distracted by Ruby and remorse. Instead, she took an almost imperceptible breath and pointed a thumb over her shoulder.

"And put that man in a bag."

Not a flicker of emotion crossed her face.

If the men were surprised by the guy they had definitely not allowed down the tunnel or the orders from the heiress, they did not show it. One spoke to the others in a low voice and they knelt by the downed girl. Who she supposed was the squad medic analyzed her and swiftly had straightened out her limbs. Another was sent to the surface to forward instructions and return with a stretcher.

The last one picked up his rifle and started making his way towards the bullet-ridden corpse. Using his gun's light to avoid stumbling over loose stones. She hoped he would have the sense to bring back Crescent Rose. Ruby could not be allowed to even think about it being pried from the stiff fingers of a lifeless body that was just smiling with her.

Weiss, commands issued, had not turned back to her team. Neither was she looking at the injured form of Blake. From where Yang stood, it looked like the shorter girl was lost in thought.

She did not have time to wonder if maybe the heiress needed someone to stand by her too or weigh the odds of her comforting or reproaching Ruby for the state she was in.

"What the-?" The medic searching through Blake's hair for more damage started in surprise. Yang instantly moved closer, unconsciously dragging Ruby along.

An agonized cry came from somewhere. And whistling through the air came Crescent Rose.

One guard did not dodge in time and was knocked aside with a spray of blood. He writhed there as the scythe reached the men around the entrance, who threw themselves on the ground to avoid being cleaved.

The weapon flew through the exit and buried itself in the tunnel wall beyond.

Leo had survived hundreds of years asleep while his fellows turned to dust, or that was her first guess. As Ruby tore herself from her hold and their eyes searched where he his body had hit the ground, she knew for sure.

He knelt in a red puddle, blood covered his robe and stained his face, but his eyes were sharp and finding targets.

The guardsman sent to confirm his death was screaming and held by an arm around his neck, the meat shield's severed legs just a few feet away. The crippled man's rifle flew into his other hand and shot a recovering guard in the unprotected neck before his surviving squadmates returned fire wildly.

Shots roared in the echoing chamber. Most bullets impacted thin air before their destination, but not all. The injured guard screamed until his armor failed under the barrage his own squad aimed at him.

Then a grenade attachment sent a shell sailing at the fresh corpse, only to ricochet off the scarred chest plate and demolish the already abused roof above their heads.

The floor did not begin its collapse in one place, but all around them. She barely spotted Leonard through the chaos. The lucky troopers dove out of the desk-sized stone's path with loud curses and louder stray shots.

The part of her brain in charge of useless information noted there could not be much of the original ceiling left.

The one tasked with terrain awareness screamed that most of the new one was about to come down.

When tons of earth dislodged from the roof uncomfortably closer, Yang grabbed her sister and ran for the exit. That seemed to trigger the collapse of every ton of everything above her.

Weiss appeared ahead of them, struggling to lift Blake until she gathered her wits and used a glyph to throw them out of the chamber. Ruby tried to break from Yang's hold on her arm, screaming about helping someone. But Blake was safe and they were not, so she threw the smaller girl over a shoulder and leapt through the threshold.

In the last second before the collapse blocked the way, Yang met those glowing green eyes. There was strength there she would remember for the rest of her life. He raised his arms and roared through the havoc. Yang could feel it was not a curse against them or the unjust world.

It was a challenge.


	3. Consequences

AN: A lot of people have been asking about an update schedule and I have not really responded. The answer is I didn't think of one, but I'll try to make it every two weeks.

Also, started posting this story by bits on Spacebattles. If you can't wait for the next third of a chapter, you might find error-filled/unrevised chunks there.

* * *

Blake awoke, as usual, to the sounds of dragging footsteps and incoherent grumbles.

The room was dark. Barely any rays of sunlight peeking through the window in the early hour. The air was cool, her bed was warm, and she relished in burrowing deeper in her sheets and trying to turn off her sensitive ears.

It was a futile struggle - no amount of familiarity could make one ignore Yang's snoring.

And yet, bravely she held on until the sound of doors opening and closing reached her, as students in adjacent dorm rooms began their search for coffee or a shower. Only then did she push her blankets away and got up.

The White Fang was no place for long or hot showers. Or languishing in bed, for that matter. Over the weeks after her escape she had fought constant paranoia and tried to enjoy the comforts of whatever cheap hotel she occasionally spent a night at. It was not until Beacon that she finally was able to relax.

Here, lost in a crowd of students guarded by some of Vale's most recognized Huntsmen in probably the safest place in the Kingdom, she was _safe_.

She could have full meals, wander freely, spend entire afternoons wrapped in her sheets around a book and mornings basking drowsily in the sun. She could use all the hot water she wanted as long as she didn't keep anyone waiting or made herself late for classes.

The fiasco at the Schnee mine didn't change much, fortunately.

No one could tell her exactly where the man her team had fought came from. The Schnee stated he must have snuck past their guards before RWBY arrived and ambushed them, Yang had told her exactly where she found him but was unsure if she'd been attacked first, Weiss had privately shared concerns about the blonde's credibility and refused to take a stance on anything she hadn't seen for herself. Asking Ruby was out of the question.

The girls were a bit of a mess for a few days. Ruby was withdrawn and Yang had to force food into her, they both spent a lot of time lost in thought. The only mark left on Weiss was a bruised ego, _of course._

Team JNPR had done their best to help them feel back to normal. Surprisingly, Jaune found some workshop for team leaders dealing with loss and signed up with Ruby. Things got better after that. Routine had a way of fixing things. Weeks later, you could barely spot the changes.

For Blake, her worst recollection from the mission was waking up in a Schnee infirmary and panicking until she realized her disguise was dirty but untouched, then swearing the, fortunately, cooperative doctor into secrecy and rushing their return to Beacon before the rumor spread. Luckily the Schnee goons had wanted them gone while they prepared diggers and soldiers as badly as Blake herself.

Who the man had been and whatever he'd been doing in the tomb was saddly irrelevant with him dead and the place destroyed.

So now she showered while her team slept. A few more minutes in warm water were not worth risking her place in Beacon.

The girls were still asleep when she left the bathroom, fully dressed for the day. She slipped out and went for a walk.

There were few people up this early. Mostly half-awake students and some maintenance personnel. She did almost run into a couple of older students sneaking back into the building, but she pretended to be absorbed in her scroll and they passed by.

They weren't an uncommon sight, despite the efforts of countless couples to be subtle. Young people, pushing themselves to their physical peak, facing the stress of higher education and the horror of the Grimm. It was a wonder the nights were so silent.

She had not managed her hormonal impulses half as well the last time she was in a high-stress environment.

 _I can't keep thinking about the past, it's just a memory and I am free now._

Easier said than done. She had made many mistakes in her life and - though Beacon was far from the White Fang's camps and facilities - strong, driven, young men with hidden sides were not so hard to find.

' _Live and learn.'_ That was all but her motto the last few months. _I am free now._

She took a deep breath of the morning air.

Her feet had taken her to one of the Academy's many gardens. Not too far from the launch pads used during initiation. It was an old habit to have an escape route if the worst came to pass. Like many others, she was sure it would be washed away by the safety and routine of Beacon.

The sky was lighter now, clear and blue. Her team would be awake soon or already. Because of that knowledge, she was not too surprised when her scroll vibrated in her pocket.

A familiar dread settled over her when she saw the unregistered id next to the message preview _'img'_. She spoke to few people in her new life, and fewer had her number.

Then she saw the picture of herself, a white mask over her eyes, talking with Adam Taurus, surrounded by White Fang uniformed grunts.

Her blood turned to ice in her veins. Her sight narrowed until all she could see was the picture on screen. She was hyperventilating and her ears were ringing. When she came to, she was sitting on the ground. Steadying her hands, she read the message.

 _Parking lot on Jacynth and Freemont. Third level._

There was nothing else. Not even a time.

 _'They found me.'_ She was shaking where she sat. _'It's over. I have to run.'_

If she didn't show, all they had to do was send a tip to the police or anyone in Beacon. Airports and docks might as well be closed to her. The only option other option was the criminal underworld, and it would doubtless pick the Fang's money and goodwill over her's. She would have to sneak onto a transport to leave the city, maybe go to ground for a few days first? But where-

Her scroll vibrated again. Almost sick with fear, she lifted it back to her face.

 _Y r u up_

It took almost five seconds to see Yang's name above the text. Tears stung her eyes.

Beacon had represented the foundation of her new life. Here she was a Huntress in training, honing her skills so one day she could protect the world and show everyone that Humans and Faunus could work together. That goal was in the distant future, however, so it was barely more than a daydream no matter how much she wanted it.

But RWBY was something she could watch and help grow bit by bit. She had learned each girl's quirks and traits, both good and bad. She had learned to fight and work and live together with them. She had seen them overcome their personal differences and done her best to do the same. And they had worked put in the effort to learn about her at the same time.

Team RWBY was her biggest hope. Her family where she had already walked out of one. The friends she would cherish and lean on the rest of her life, who would help her grow as a person and achieve her goals. The place where she'd belong.

The thought of being taken from them hurt. And, surprisingly, so did wondering what they'd think of her once the truth came out.

Another message.

 _Now I cant go back to sleep. If I become a morning person, put me down_

Wind blew into the garden and threw her hair about. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She smelled the forest not too far away.

 _You've been getting up earlier lately, hmm. I went for a walk._

Why was there no meeting time? Did it mean she had to go right now or that there would be another message there?

She couldn't go right away. She couldn't just vanish without raising uncomfortable questions with her team. She couldn't delay and risk being outed as a former terrorist.

Better to deal with her team than Beacon's professors and the police. Her hands steadied, she stood and headed for the locker rooms. Blackmail or hit squad, she needed her gear.

The team had not questioned her ever-present bow. They would not look too closely into a solid excuse. She could make up an old friend having an emergency - she would say they moved away if she fixed this. If she didn't, she would probably never see them again anyway.

It had been a long time since she'd picked up a weapon with so much purpose. Back then, she was young and foolish. She had been eager to fight back against those who profited from the suffering of faunus. Now she would do almost anything to keep that past hidden.

Complete the objective, no matter the cost. It was eerily familiar.

Once changed, she boarded Beacon's ferry into the city. The few people who worked in Beacon during the night gave her various looks but let her be. They must have thought she was playing hooky.

How often did a student skip class to walk into a terrorist ambush, she wondered.

* * *

She composed her lie in the taxi to the industrial district. Yang was politely worried about her friend and genuinely asked if Blake needed any help.

There was little traffic in this part of the city. Technology moved forward too fast for old facilities to keep up, the city built second and third levels above the streets, and some places were left behind for the least fortunate of the population.

All around were crossed-out gang tags and unmaintained streets. Dealers sold their poisons in the shadows between buildings and faunus walked quickly with heads down or wary eyes.

Police sirens blared in the distance but no one seemed surprised.

She put it out of mind. Her own problems came first and she was past her dreams of fixing everything wrong in the world.

Her target building was nothing special. Just like any other four-story car park she'd seen before air travel became more accessible and the concept lost some of its appeal. It made sense that such buildings would still survive in the less well-off parts of the city.

The last few blocks to it she traveled by rooftop. Even where there was no conventional method of reaching them, Aura allowed her to jump far beyond what her normal leg strength should.

She analyzed the building from every angle, making a whole circuit around it from above and dropping down to an alley to keep watch for a few more minutes.

An old man sat at the guard station out front. He payed no mind to the few people moving past him. Barely any cars came in or out, automated machines handling their tickets and payment. Would he react if she walked past with her weapon? It didn't matter, there was no way someone wouldn't spot her if they were watching.

She climbed back onto the nearest roof and leapt across the street onto the roof. After a second to make sure it was as clear as it looked from a distance, she swung off the side and landed between two cars on the third floor.

There were cameras, unfortunately, but she did her best to avoid them and the people occasionally moving about.

Moving around the outside, in case she needed a quick escape, revealed nothing. Deeper in, she found the three claw marks of the Fang and an arrow pointing to the center of floor. There was a small space between the ramps for cars to go up or down floors where a few people could stand. Anyone could be hiding there.

Knowing she could not do this on her terms was almost enough for her to run away, but with that picture they had her by the throat.

She tried to calm herself, to turn her anxiety into anger. Her heart wouldn't stop racing.

Another search around the floor showed no hidden reinforcements. If they were waiting on the upper and lower floors she would see them coming. But she would have to walk into whatever was waiting between the ramps.

A few minutes later, she had not moved an inch.

' _I can't walk in there.'_ She thought.

It had taken everything from her to leave the White Fang. The decision alone had been a months-long struggle and would probably still be ongoing if not for the fateful mission that forced her to chose between innocent lives and her messed up comfort zone. The material and social losses and following struggles were easy by comparison. Walking in there could end with her reinducted or dead. It was too risky, and there was no way around it.

She took out her scroll to look at the picture again. Above the message, Yang kept up a constant commentary on what fun she was missing in Port's class and Ruby wished her luck and a safe return.

She had to. Running now would cost her Beacon and team RWBY. Probably her freedom too - she couldn't outrun both sides of the law at the same time.

' _I am free now.'_

And the only way to remain free was to stand up and-

"Shit." She had her gun out in a second. "You got here fast."

The speaker - ' _Faunus, not armed, tired'_ \- was off to her side, standing between cars a dozen meters away with hands raised. She would not have noticed him come even closer if he hadn't spoken up.

"Calm down, don't wanna do anything hasty."

He removed a scroll from his pocket and wiggled it in the air, as if to remind her of his power over her.

Combed brown hair and extra ears aside, his white shirt and black pants would let him walk around ignored. But Blake knew a fighter when she saw one. He was unconcerned with her weapon, but not in the cocky way that might indicate he was trusting the blackmail to keep him safe - he had Aura or skill enough to think he could escape if she pulled the trigger.

"C'mon, you might be new at this but I sure ain't." He lowered his hands, and slowly walked out of his cover. "Now put that down before someone else sees and let's get to talkin'."

Again, he had her. If some civilian saw her training her weapon on him they'd have to run. If he thought he couldn't get what he wanted from her, he might send the picture purely out of spite. Gambol Shroud returned to her back.

"Talk, then."

He smiled, it didn't reach his dark eyes.

"Let's make this quick, we are both about to be real busy." He sat on the hood of a car and gestured she do the same. "See, I like to look at everything like a business transaction, if you can make both sides happy you can skip a lot of unpleasantness."

She crossed her arms, mostly to keep her hands from fidgeting, and remained standing. He scoffed.

"Look, this doesn't have to be as bad as you think. I know if I push too hard you'll fight me every step. So let's trade one small favor for you never having to see me again."

That was doubtful. Even if she wasn't probably high on the White Fang's list, her blackmailer wouldn't just delete the picture once he got his 'favor'.

"Aren't you a regular chatterbox..." He sighed, and dropped the fake smile. His face was almost uninterested. "Your old boyfriend's got bigger things to worry about than chasin' after you, and I care more about my bank account than stepping into that mess."

She could believe that. It eased her biggest worry. Adam was not stable when she left, she couldn't imagine he'd be any better now. She could see a pragmatic individual choosing to stay out of his sights.

"See, couple days ago a few friends of ours stopped answering his calls. He asked a buddy to check up on them, and he asked me to come along." She almost didn't want to know what the Fang were doing nowadays, but morbid curiosity won out. "So I did some digging and found our friends, only they weren't so friendly anymore, we tried talking to them but they paid some thug to kick us out."

Her heart went out for any rogue White Fang, running from what the organization had become only to be hunted down as traitors or criminals. She dreaded what he might ask of her.

"Now my buddy is in real bad shape, and I have to deal with this whole muck-up or go back with my tail between my legs. I'm not too excited to do that, or try to be a hero and get the limelight." One option would end his life, the other greatly lower his shot for anonymity. "I just want to do this favor for him and get back home. I'm a bit of an introvert, you see, and my boss can be real pushy."

His eyes narrowed at her. "And if you thought that guy had a temper back then, you can not imagine what heartbreak did to him."

She trusted he had grown more violent, but Adam had never loved her. Even in his own, twisted way, all he ever felt for her was possessive. It was just more of his annoying double-talk. Someone filled with so much hate could not possibly love anything.

"What do you want from me?" She needed to keep looking forward, not back.

His empty smile returned.

"I can't exactly have the conversation I need with my traitorous friends with that guy hanging around." He removed a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and placed it on the hood next to him before standing, she could see an address written on it. He looked around carefully before speaking in a serious, cold voice.

"This is where they're crashing now and when I'll pay them another visit, I hope this guy's gone by then."

He walked away, she stopped him. More a reaction than a planned decision.

"What's gonna happen to the… your friends?"

She could imagine.

There had been a time, back when their change of leadership was imminent but not yet established, when faunus disgusted with the violence would quit the White Fang and turn their efforts to bettering their lives however they could. The number of members turned away by the new direction taken was covered by the young recruits eager for it, so no one saw a problem with letting members leave.

Until Adam did, no matter how stubbornly she refused to believe it at the time.

Oh, she could imagine.

The man turned. Annoyance started to show.

"Way they're going, it's only a matter of time until they hurt themselves or others. What kind of friend lets them do that?"

He let out a short laugh, the amusement was the closest to sincere she'd felt from him. When it stopped, his eyes were empty.

"Sooner or later, we all gotta face consequences." He turned again and walked away. "Count yourself lucky, you get to learn from other's mistakes and not your own."

* * *

She waited a few hours to send Yang a message telling her she'd be spending the rest of the day with her 'friend', seeing as they were about to leave the city. Her partner was perfectly understanding.

The good thing about lies like that is you don't have to remember much if it's ever questioned. Someone else might feel guilty over lying to the other girl. Blake knew better.

Yang would no doubt rush to her rescue if she found herself in a tight spot, that much she would bet on. But not one of her teammates would help kill someone to keep her dirty secrets. Weiss would turn on her at the smallest suspicion of her past.

Blake herself was not so sure she could do it.

Firstly, this man had apparently beat two enforcers at once, bare minimum. If her blackmailer had been confident he could survive her attacking, and his partner was higher ranked as he had implied, could she even defeat him?

Secondly, while she had blood on her hands she had never outright killed someone for personal gain. Once the fight started, she was sure she could let herself go with the moment and score a lethal wound. But if he surrendered or she could catch him unawares?

She was working under the assumption he was just some mercenary like any other. Someone who killed for money would not be missed by the world, but he was still a person.

No, if he surrendered or could be otherwise removed she would definitely spare him. The objective was what he was guarding, not his life.

That, however, made her stomach sink.

The Fang would not send someone to deal with a rogue cell who could not handle a rogue cell. And the man she'd met earlier would not be using her against their guard if he didn't still have a plan for them.

She could pretend all she wanted that he would coerce them back into the fold and sweep their betrayal under the rug, but most likely they would all die as a direct result of her interference.

If he was as prepared as he seemed to be, the picture would go out even if she'd killed him back at the car park. And he looked like the sort to have contingencies and make sure to take down everyone with him when they failed.

Even that kind of man she was not sure she could murder to save herself. He did not once give the impression of hating her or enjoying her situation. He had not sold her out to Adam for an elevated position - he just wanted to do his job, keep his head low, and stay alive. He was cold and merciless, with some moments of dark amusement, but something had made him that way.

It wasn't their animal traits that made many faunus dangerous, humans molded them into the enemies they wanted to see.

No, the only two outcomes for this were be exposed or have the ex-terrorists' lives on her conscience.

As much as it pained her. She wanted her future too badly to let this stop her. If there was any other way, she would take it in a heartbeat.

 _'I can only hope for an opportunity.'_

She fantasised briefly on some miracle happening - the White Fang returning to their roots or some knight in shining armor hacking her blackmailer and saving her. The image of a man in polished plate poking at a computer from atop a bored horse almost made her laugh, but her mood was too dark.

Hoping would not get her out of this mess.

The new address she'd been given lead her to a warehouse in the bad part of the district. The streets below were almost empty and the buildings were in a sorry state of disrepair - one in ten looked completely abandoned.

She climbed a rickety fire escape to the highest vantage point she could use. Thankfully, the few cars moving through made enough noise that her nerves didn't get any worse.

The warehouse itself was not remarkable. It's stained and cracked windows just like a good half of those on its adjacent buildings. Rusted metal and peeling paint covered the thing. But she could see the worst places were at least shoddily reinforced.

A tarp, likely covering a hole, in the ceiling. Boards put up behind broken windows. A barricade of old machinery blocking the one fragile side-door.

The only remaining way in was through the loading bay, where a man sat partially hidden from pedestrian view outside a closed industrial door.

She could not see if the guard was a faunus with his lower body out of sight. He wore clean clothes and a jacket despite the midday sun. The rolled up sleeves and unbuttoned shirt indicated it was not a fashion choice.

He was armed. But a grunt with a gun couldn't possibly be her target.

Her childish hope of being given the wrong place, just so she could delay, was dashed. The streets were too empty for her not to draw attention down there, so she watched from her spot and did her best to come up with a plan.

Planning was not one of her strengths.

'Wait for more to arrive, peek in through the hole on the roof, spot target and follow until he's alone.'

With the time frame she was given, it would have to happen that same day too. But hours passed in dreadful anxiety without much happening besides a change of guards.

* * *

Waiting was also not one of her specialties.

Blake had done some exploring in an abandoned apartment complex nearby. She had found one room in respectable condition with a good view of the warehouse, barricaded it, and made herself a comfortable watchpost where she could rest.

Watching the lack of happenings at the warehouse invariably led to pessimistic thoughts of what her future would look like after being blackmailed into assassinating someone for the White Fang.

Eventually she had enough.

Skipping class another day would be too much for her team - Weiss would definitely try to stop her. It would probably raise questions from the professors too, and that was not the sort of attention she could afford. Returning to try again the next afternoon was an option, but she would have so little time left that it would mean crashing in there and taking out her target. The other ex-terrorists would get involved too.

With her mind made up, she left her little hiding place through the window - the only way remaining after her fortifications - and walked through the streets to come at the warehouse from the unguarded side.

No watchers were visible anywhere. No cameras or detection systems. They had been relying fully on this part of town being almost abandoned by day and dangerous at night. Truthfully, she doubted she would have even spotted the guard at the entrance without the foreknowledge.

'How were they found, then?'

That really was none of her business. She had to worry about remaining undetected and finding the target.

Reaching the roof was too easy. Blake took every precaution to make sure she wasn't walking into a trap, but nothing felt off besides being forced into this. She was never one to go with her gut but while searching the roof for anything out of place she tried to stall in case it suddenly felt anything.

The roof was clear of any sort of explosive or detection hardware. Only rusted machinery, some crates made of rotting wood, and newer discarded food packages could be found.

She didn't bother with the door to the roof access, only spending enough time to move some broken parts in front of it to give her an audible warning if it were opened. Instead, she leaned over the hole covered by a tarp and tried to focus her hearing.

"..."

There were definitely voices coming from inside, but the wind and rare cars causing interference she could make out nothing.

The sun was still higher than she would have liked. But it was not shining directly onto her position, so she very carefully unsecured one end of the tarp and peeled it back until she could peek through.

Inside, a few faunus in casual clothing sat around table in discussion. One stood aside speaking into her scroll and another pair watched television on a couch in what looked like a recreational area.

The warehouse floor had been divided into sections with metal shelving or random junk serving as dividers. Other than the rec and meeting areas, she quickly identified a very poor armory and a dormitory.

Once she was sure she'd spotted everyone inside, she carefully stuck her head in.

The female busy with her scroll was talking in hushed tones she couldn't quite understand. The television was set to a news channel, she ignored it.

On the meeting table sat three men. One was eating what looked like military rations. She'd had enough of those in the White Fang camps for one lifetime. They sent curious looks to the female every now and then, but talked freely.

"... hundred he's wishing we killed him by now."

"If you had a hundred lien, you wouldn't be sleeping here, dumbass."

A moment of silence. The younger man nibbling on his nutrient bar looked from one to the other in expectation.

"Fuck, man, tell me how you really feel."

The other mumbled some apology and left for the rec room.

No one there looked like who she was after. Maybe he worked nights only?

 _'Might be on-call. Do I have to attack them to draw him out?'_

She was not sure she could. Unless the standard training all recruits got had changed, it would be like attacking armed civilians - poorly armed ones. If they even had unlocked Aura's, the fact that they'd received no more training meant it would be too weak to take more than a few hits.

 _'I can't see too much from here, he could still be inside.'_

A few doors led to what could be offices or bathrooms. One opened into stairs and another faunus, this one with no visible traits, climbed up and out carrying bags of groceries the three watching television quickly helped with. The woman finished her call and started a new one.

Before the door was closed again she got a good look past it.

 _'They're moving underground..'_

No wonder she'd seen no one leave or arrive. This building belonged to a time before the city was so fortified. Many zones as old as this one had tunnel systems built under them to serve as refuge and evacuation routes if the Grimm ever breached the walls.

Much better bunkers had been built in the time since, and now tunnels like these existed here and there for the dregs of society to populate. The city had sealed off most, but a few still remained.

On the ceiling around her head were metallic support beams. Further below a catwalk hugged the walls.

She worried for a moment that reinforcements could arrive from there without her knowing until the door opened, but reminded herself she was only scouting. She would run at the first sign of danger.

Before the slight reassurance could fade, she slithered through until she could brace her legs against the criss-crossing metal and pulled the tarp back into place. No one noticed anything below.

She stayed in place long enough to be sure that no one seemed tense and no conversation could be some sort of code or signal.

Then she tested her hand and foot-holds and made her way to the spot right above the woman. It was slow going, but she was quickly rewarded.

"...you set your price, now you will stick to it. I will deal fairly with anyone who does the same, but don't think you can push me around."

From this distance, she could clearly see the woman's furry tail whipping from side to side. Fear or anger, if Blake got her animal right. It was the same light tone of brown as her hair.

The woman ended the call and brought her hands to her face. She took deep breaths and hid from the other's sight by walking a few steps into the armory.

Her stomach fell further at having to witness the apparent leader's moment of weakness. But she was her only hope for finding their mercenary any time soon.

Below, the phone rang and the woman answered.

"Hey, please give me good news."

Blake's ears perked but she could hear nothing of the response.

"I hope 'Well In Hand' doesn't mean we have to move again, last time was expensive enough."

"..."

"I'm sure you think our many worries are great for your job security but I'm paying you to help us get our lives back, not survive in some shit-hole."

Blake tensed, that had to be who she was after on the line. She repositioned and prepared to exfiltrate in case she obtained his location.

"I'll relax when we're safe, you have all the Dust you could ever want and I'm house-shopping in Vacuo."

She had imagined something like this to be their objective. There were few places beyond the Fang's reach, if you could not make it to one of them the safest course of action was to change your name and vanish into the crowds.

Desperately, she wished these people would succeed in this before the White Fang moved in once she removed their protector.

"Whatever you're trying to line up, just spit it out."

This response she did hear. Not because the scroll's volume increased or her hearing sharpened. She heard it because it came from right behind her.

"Look up."

Blake twisted on the spot, her hands releasing their holds to ward off some attack and the other to reach Gambol Shroud and la-

And come to a jarring stop.

 _'What?'_

Through her pounding head and frantic heartbeat she processed the cold chains securing her to a metal seat and her change in position from mid-strike to…

 _'What just- What?!'_

Her eyes - _'Were they closed?'_ \- snapped open as she strained uselessly against the bindings.

An empty room with old paint, lit by a dusty lamp in the corner, greeted her.

She struggled mindlessly, not understanding what - _'How?'_ \- was happening but very afraid.

The moment her mind kicked back into action, it only got worse.

She had been discovered somehow. Somehow, someone had been right behind her on the rafters. She had turned to meet the threat and the next instant she was tied to a chair.

 _'But HOW?!'_

Furiously, she gathered herself. How she ended up here was not more important than how she would escape. Her heart still raced, her limbs still struggled, she was hyperventilating through her mouth.

Her semblance could make a weak shadow decoy of herself, it could not . The best way to use it now would be to make it seem she was free at a critical moment. Her weapon was gone and she was not strong enough to break her many restraints. No, her greatest asset right now was her mind. She had to find or make an opportunity and exploit it.

Blake shut her mouth and her eyes and willed her heart to slow down. She exhaled slowly and breathed in, smelling stale air and rotting wood and dust and sweat and blood.

Instincts drove her to look behind her, but there was nothing in the room but her and the lamp. Someone must have been with her moments ago, the smell was too strong for any alternative.

She next tried to hear anything outside, but could make out nothing.

Maybe they were already out looking for a new safehouse.

Trying her restraints gave her no new options. The chains were so firmly wrapped around her she could barely make them rattle.

Her mood had been dark all day, and only gotten worse since this morning. With no new input and no other option but even darker thoughts of what might happen to her, she turned to wishful thinking.

She wished she was back at Beacon. She wished she'd smashed her scroll to pieces a week ago. She wished she had turned her back on the White Fang years ago.

No miracle happened. She did not blink and find herself in the past. She did not discover a second semblance or reach deeper into her own.

Almost worst than that disappointment, she found no other decision she could've made to avoid landing in this situation.

Ignoring the message this morning would've ended exactly as she'd feared at the time.

Killing her blackmailer would've ended the same way. The only way to stop him would be to tail him and learn his methods until she could disable whatever system he'd use to release the picture, delete all his copies of it, and then kill him.

She no longer felt hesitant about killing him if it would save her from whatever was to come.

Going into the warehouse could have been avoided, but watching and waiting from the outside would have led to nothing and she didn't have time to plant listening devices and cross her fingers.

"Didn't know terrorists came this young."

She'd turned around at the first syllable. The voice that spoke was male, clear, and accented.

Where before there had been nothing behind her, now stood a man.

 _'No visible traits, no visible weapons, not aggressive, not worried.'_

The man have hid anything inside his jacket, however. The clothes themselves were what you'd expect of a young man freshly transitioned from higher education to the professional world.

His hair was black as hers and barely styled, it was almost long enough that it might get in his eyes during a fight. His skin was pale, his build lean, his height unremarkable. His face was elegant, but nothing that would really jump out from a crowd.

The eyes were another story, because despite his unassuming appearance those eyes made her heart rate go on a hike again.

They were bright green and deep in a way she couldn't explain. Just by looking at them she knew escaping, fighting, or deceiving would end in failure. Every trick she could pull came to the front of her mind and was dismissed.

She turned her head back to break the unnerving stare, and the profound unease left her.

 _'Has to be a semblance, I've never given up so easy.'_

"No need to go all S.E.R.E. on me," he spoke when she remained silent. "I like it when my enemies have loose ends."

'I'm not one of those right now, I'm a weapon aimed at you.'

"Loose ends?"

In response, he walked around her and dropped a blood-stained scroll on her lap. She analyzed it for some hint until she realized she'd seen it once before.

It was her blackmailer's.

"What were you on that photo, fifteen?"

She answered with a mumbled 'seventeen' as sickening relief and trepidation crashed through her. The day-long roller coaster of emotion had left her numb and dizzy. At this point, she almost didn't care how the end ended so long as it did.

If the faunus in the car park was dead, the picture's automatic release could have already happened or been disabled. If it even existed in the first place and wasn't just a bluff. Assuming the original blackmail threat was completely neutralized, she was now looking at the new one.

"What do you want from me?" The words cut as she spat them out.

He did not look either pleased nor victorious at her surrender. His brow was set in a small frown and his lips in a thin line as he crouched down to eye-level with her.

"You are much too young to be involved in this," he genuinely reprimanded. "But you snuck in here with a weapon on you back and some faith in your ability to take me down."

His gaze pinned her down.

"Now, the people outside this room would jump at the chance of using you to reach their goal, few people wouldn't when that goal is survival." So she was still in the warehouse. At least she had not been moved to some containment facility.

"The last time we showed mercy to the agents of the White Fang, they you roped into this, and many are not sure the risk is worth taking again. But I think, this time, the risk is less."

He picked up the scroll from where it had fallen between her thighs and held it up pointedly. Restrained as she was, she could not have stopped him from taking any liberties. The fact that he didn't was probably also meant to make her trust him.

"I want you to go back to wherever you came from."

Beacon. She would love to take a long, warm shower and sink into her mattress right now.

"I do not want to regret this."

Some would call it too good to be true. Blake knew life could once in awhile not be an absolute bitch.

So when he asked "What do you want?", the truth burst from her lips.

"I want you to not regret this."

Few things she had wanted more.

He smiled and poked her forehead, she awoke in the bed of her barricaded little watchpost with Gambol Shroud on a chair and a new contact on her scroll named _'James Black.'_


	4. Curiosity

'In other news, gang violence continues to rise in the industrial district with eight men found dead on Pier Eleven after what appears to be a shootout. A witness has yet to come forth, but the workers who reported the incident said they heard multiple gunshots in a handful of seconds before-'

"Hellooo?"

Blake tore her eyes from the screen to her partner.

The reporter continued in the background as she sent Yang a questioning look and tried to look like she had her attention while straining her ears.

"...wearing the colors of a local gang, the VPD has vowed to increase their presence in these districts and stop the violence before anyone else is hurt."

This was the third group of murdered gangsters that made it to the news this week, and Blake was sure at least two more had been cleaned up before the police could get to there. She'd been too slow to get a guess for last week's number, but the total could well be in the double digits.

Her fork bent sharply before it was taken from her hands.

"Okay, that's it," Yang did not look pleased with her, but fixed a convincing smile on her face when she turned to the others. "We'll catch up in class, girls."

Blake did not protest when her partner dragged her up and off by the wrist like one would an unruly child.

To be honest, she'd been expecting this for a while. And trying to fight it would only make it worse.

There was no changing the blond brawler's mind once made up. And while she had quickly learned Blake was not the sort to appreciate her forceful assertion, she had also been holding her tongue for days longer than the other girl had hoped.

Their teammates and friends sent bemused acknowledgements and waves at their retreating backs.

Yang kept quiet until they reached the locker room. She was thankful to the walk for the chance to gather her scattered thoughts in some effort to prepare. No one else was there with them, and the silence stretched until it was almost painful.

"Blake..." She had still not turned around.

She made to speak but stopped after drawing air. Her hands came up to rest on her hips, then again to crack her knuckles and more to run through her hair.

"I want to know what happened."

Blake took a silent step back.

After somehow surviving her disastrous infiltration attempt, she had run and hid for hours until her heart stopped racing. In some back alley in the commercial district, wondering how long Black had been watching her and if she'd truly lost him, Blake had found some missed calls and messages on her scroll.

The rest of that harrowing afternoon she had spent looking over her shoulder as she took the most roundabout way back to Beacon, avoided her teammates, and got a new scroll to replace the one she'd smashed to bits and thrown down a sewer.

When she met her team, almost an hour after their usual bedtime, they believed her story about going around town helping an old friend get everything ready for his big move to another kingdom and being unable to answer calls after some clumsiness on his part ruined her mobile.

She'd hoped Yang would not connect her recent distraction with that.

"I told you, didn't I?" The blond did not turn, but her answer bought some time. "Caught up with a friend, helped him run some errands, he dropped my scroll down the stairs?"

"This… Black... person, yeah." Yang responded quickly. Behind her back, Blake flinched hard.

While being questioned about her day, Ruby had surprised her by asking for his name. Usually Blake came prepared with answers that people already expected to avoid too much scrutiny. But, for all RWBY knew, she had no friends.

Silence in a conversation had a way of drawing attention. Hesitating on a question as easy as that would raise even her leader's eyebrows. Her instincts screamed at her to spit out a name, and her subconscious mind provided the one most prominent in her thoughts at the moment.

Later, she'd found it ironic to lament losing useful contacts she had never memorized while keeping the only one she didn't save herself.

'James Black.'

"But that's not everything that happened."

Now Yang turned, intense violet eyes piercing through her. Blake had come in expecting a few accusations, she had leaned against a locker and readied a calm look on her face. But the concern in her partner's every gesture, almost hidden by anger, almost had her drawing back.

She needed to get the conversation on track. It was too late now to make Yang back off. The lack of sleep, the number of times she'd missed people talking to her, not to mention the seemingly random irritation. All signs of struggling against a stressful problem.

Her increasingly curt responses to 'Everything okay?' really limited her options now.

With one last breath to get her act together, she slipped into a mindset she had tried to leave with her old life.

Her eyes met Yang contemplatively, then the walls, and closed. Her arms crossed, then lowered until she was almost hugging herself. She turned her body so it was her back to the locker instead of her shoulder. When she opened her eyes again, she kept her partner only in her peripheral.

"I grew up around some… rough people." She shuffled slightly. "They were great to me but they ... they did the best they could."

It was a calculated risk, of course. But Yang had already learned enough of Blake's personality to understand pushing would not get her anywhere. And, even after almost two months sharing a room, she had yet to ask Weiss about her scar.

She was still gambling, but Blake was sure her partner would be put too off-balance by any revelation from her to dig any deeper. The disguised Faunus didn't need to distract Yang with some fabulous story, she just had to surprise her by telling enough of  
the truth.

"We didn't think the government cared for us, so we didn't care much for it either." And wasn't that the truth? "Since I was old enough to understand, I was angry – and righteously! – because good people were forced into bad situations all around me."

She toed the line between tragic and incriminating, but the feelings behind her words had clearly taken Yang's mind away from any intention she'd walked in the room with.

But forcing herself to open up much more would not only be so far out of character that Yang might come around to suspect an ulterior motive. It would also taint their relationship, and RWBY played too large a role in her vague plans for the future to risk that way.

"As I got older, I learned to defend myself. I was better at it than most so I just kept at it. We all had to carry our weight, so when I grew strong enough, it was me protecting the weaker of us." That part she rushed through. The best lies had some truth in them, but she was stretching it too much to try coloring it some other way.

"Eventually grew smart enough to think for myself, to see the bigger picture and think about what sort of person I wanted to be. And then I heard about Beacon's entrance exams… we could have parted on better terms."

Yang opened her mouth to interrupt. Blake continued her story when no words came out.

"I left because I wanted to do something better with my life and they didn't, but all these killings make me worry about them."

Saying her feelings for the White Fang were complicated would be the biggest understatement of her life. She wanted to protect them from the world that hurt them so much, and also from the lengths they might go to. The conflict came through in her voice.

Silence stretched between them while Yang processed her story and Blake half-pretended to recompose herself. Then her partner took a step closer.

"What can we do about it?"

Finally, the reason for this conversation.

The long and silent walk from the cafeteria had given her enough time to predict and prepare. Her original plan to dissuade her teammate faded away as she tried to build a convincing argument to prove she was not bothered because the situation did not involve her.

She couldn't. For a week she'd spent every waking moment trying to pretend that day had never happened or staring at the new contact in her list as if the name would somehow answer the questions that plagued her.

It had been made clear to her that some in the Fang still recognized her. Any contact with one of their agents - even rogue ones - could ruin everything. The threat was too great for even the slightest risk, and she still caught herself on the same trains of thought she would have been on months ago. She didn't need a co-pilot as she crashed and burned.

The bonds she had made in the past pulled her back almost like a physical thing - anchors dragging her down as she struggled to rise up.

What she needed was a tether to help her into the present, towards the future she'd envisioned. To stop her from throwing her hopes and dreams away on an impulse.

That tether stared at her with fierce eyes of lilac.

"Nothing."

"What?" Yang recoiled in surprise. "But, don't you care about them?"

She knew the other girl was one for action. She knew, with the right setup, Yang would follow her into hunting down street gangs and beating answers out of them. But that would not help RWBY. And now, what was good for her team was good for her.

It had to be.

"It's… complicated. I was born to that life, to their opinions and ideas, but I chose this one." Her conviction was real, if not as strong as her stubborn nature. "I didn't want to live a life I hated just to avoid a disagreement, and they made it clear there was no room for arguing."

The look on Yang's face was sympathetic, although it remained surprised - her partner understood. The weight on her shoulders moved to her belly as success relief with disappointment.

Maybe she would slip here and there, the group of runaway faunus hiding from the White Fang and what they'd done, trying to reach new lives they could spend helping the cause in better ways… That had been her not so long ago.

She wanted them to succeed just like she wanted to help all faunus in unfair situations. It felt like betraying herself to do nothing while they could be in danger from whatever was brewing in the criminal underworld.

But that was exactly why she was in Beacon. One day she would be a fully-fledged Huntress, free to step in on situations like theirs and do the right thing with the law and her team on her side and strong enough that she would not have to fear Adam anymore.

All she had to do was keep her head down until graduation. Four years without standing out from the students around her wasn't asking for much, was it? Particularly when the spotlight was already fixated on the rising star that was Pyrrha Nikos.

Now Yang would be keeping an eye on her. With this, she had someone else who understood her occasional frustration and would help smooth things over with the rest of the team. And most importantly, with Yang ready to stop her, she would think twice about rushing off to do something foolish like she'd been justifying to herself all her life.

"If they don't want to do something better that's fine, but I won't lose my chance to do real good in the world." The words had bounced around in her head a long time, it felt good to speak them. "Not anymore."

She met Yang's eyes. The other girl looked to be thinking hard, giving Blake a look she didn't quite recognize. It felt like worry and… something else. Then she smiled and came closer.

"Alright," she leaned a shoulder against the adjacent locker. "I get it, our origins don't define us, it's our choices that do. And friends grow apart all the time, that's part of growing."

A hand wrapped around her shoulder comfortingly. Yang had quickly picked how little she appreciated physical contact, but that's just how she expressed herself best.

"If you ask me, I think your choice was very brave."

Blake turned her head quickly, to hide the way her face twisted at that.

' _Brave? Ha.'_

Yang could not be more wrong about that. And her honest support made the stone in her gut heavier with guilt. She regretted the necessity of deceiving her. She would make it up to her one day.

A finger poked her cheek.

"Aw, are you going all shy on me again?"

Blake leapt away with a hiss, stumbling so bad she almost fell to the floor, and sent a piercing glare to match the bright smile on the other girl's face.

"There's my favorite partner!"

Yang met her irritation with unflappable cheer, as she always did.

The stand-off was put on hold by a rowdy team moving by them, presumably on their way to-

"Hi, sorry, would you mind?"

Yang moved aside easily, giving a simple agreement and meeting her eyes again across the four students gearing up between them.

'Lunch must be almost over.' She thought idly.

Her teammate looked between her and a boy with a nicely muscled back removing his shirt, then wiggled her eyebrows.

With the moment dead and buried, and the tension gone from her shoulders, Blake's posture slumped. Yang preened in victory.

"See you in class." Blake called over the team's conversation, holding up her bag pointedly.

Yang's eyes went wide. She checked the floor around her, cursed loudly, and took off running.

She walked away at a calmer pace, ignoring the laughter from the other team. Out of simple curiosity, she checked to see how much time she had left.

The news app she'd downloaded was still running, as she'd left it. Her thumb was almost on the button to close it when the words on the screen hit her.

'WHITE FANG ATTACK!'

* * *

' _This is not hypocrisy.'_

Blake wondered if she'd become so good at lying that she could fool herself now.

' _I am protecting the lives of civilians; this is my duty.'_

Technically correct. And she did have the number of a mercenary who could be persuaded to put a stop to the violence with her information. She was not becoming a vigilante or breaking Yang's trust.

She had always been good at gathering knowledge. Her interest, while slow to spark, could quickly explode into tireless hours of reading and research.

Scrolling through another civilian safety forum, she found the last address she needed and marked the spot before putting down her pen to begin thinking of patterns.

Her map was a small thing, meant to fit inside an inconspicuous notebook. Fourteen black exes almost trailed a line that didn't noticeably divide anything while a circle well away represented the warehouse of the White Fang deserters.

The killings had not started at one end of the line and moved towards the other. Instead, they had popped up randomly along it, while some were not on it at all. Isolating those did not make their purpose any clearer.

' _If there is a purpose at all; it could be just gang-violence like the police says.'_

Blake had to thank the late hour, no one else at the library was within range to hear her frustrated hiss.

She had told her team there was homework she needed to work on - not a lie. And she had spent almost an hour on it until she decided to take a short break in order to recharge and tackle the final and most challenging piece.

Oobleck's assignment was still half-started, barely visible under her map and torn pages covered in notes. The sight of it could be a metaphor, her old life creeping back to consume the new.

' _Or I've spent too long on this.'_

A glance at the digital clock in the screen reinforced the second possibility. RWBY would be preparing for bed. And she'd missed dinner, as a pang in her stomach pointed out.

That was fine, a little hunger was nothing new to her.

But the library did have a closing time, and she was unlikely to make too much progress in making sense of anything after she'd exhausted every conceivable source. This was not the sort of problem she could solve by putting the time into it, she needed to look at it from a different angle.

Maybe taking the long way back to the room would help.

She'd received a few messages while her scroll had been muted. By now her custom of silencing the device while busy had been adapted into the team dynamics. Their young team leader only asked to know where she was half the times.

Here and there remained a few students working hurriedly to finish some assignment. Others lay with their heads on an improvised pillow, the work abandoned.

Quickly packing her bag - and ensuring anything not entirely academic was safely at the bottom - she rose from her seat, stretched her back, and responded to Ruby's texts before exiting into the cool air and the night sounds.

Beacon was well illuminated, not so much as to make it seem like it was busy at all hours and not so faintly that one would think they were not supposed to be there. Blake still chose one of the more isolated routes back to the dorm building.

There was little sound beyond the rustling of leaves, the calls of small animals, and her own footsteps.

A few seconds to enjoy the peace and dark was all she allowed herself.

The first problem was, of course, her conscience. If she could just stop caring about what was happening down in the city and go through Beacon like everyone else, the other problems would become irrelevant. It would be so much easier if the White Fang insignia hadn't been carved into the newest set of bodies found.

The second problem was that she still did not know enough about the situation. No one was entirely sure about the cause, culprit, or purpose of the killings. At least she was sure that they were definitely killings. No survivors or witnesses had been found to reveal what really happened, unlike in actual shootouts or gang hits. Each site on her map had held only a group of lowlifes murdered in different ways.

The third problem was her lack of ideas on how to resolve it. She could not go fighting crime like something out of a comic book, it would be dangerous on too many levels, the point of her talk with Yang was valid, even if the White Fang was actually behind everything. Her only other ideas meant going to the police, which was just playing with fire, or to James Black.

The name was common enough that her initial search had found no one noteworthy. The only thing that caught her eye was a house-fire in some village which killed one Marcus Black. She couldn't even make a guess as to his motivations or goals.

All she knew was that he was skilled enough to watch her for hours without her realizing it and sneak up on her in the ceiling rafters, that he could somehow knock out Aura-empowered people with a touch, and that he had let her go when her life was in his hands.

' _And gave me his number. Could he be looking for work?'_

She did not have the kind of money it would probably take to hire him.

What was really eating at her was the reason behind releasing her. Blake wasn't naive enough to hope he had a noble heart, but she also couldn't see what nefarious goal was achieved by showing mercy to a dumb teenager.

The ribbon around her ears had been untouched when she woke up in her watch post but she had no way of knowing if they had realized she was a Faunus. It could have been a move to gain goodwill from the former racial terrorists that were paying him.

' _He is paid to protect them; this could be a threat to them.'_

Whether he used the information to push his clients into paying him more to deal with it, or did it of his own accord would matter little as long as he stopped it before something worse happened.

She really didn't know many things.

Her drive was simple, at least. She felt sympathetic to the ex-terrorists and responsible for the actual terrorists. The White Fang had enough on its plate without being blamed for things they were innocent of. If the world blamed them for this, how would they react?

' _What if they're not innocent?'_

Could it be? At least one cell had been operating inside the city - the rogues would not have been able to enter the walls on their own. And her blackmailer had spoken of himself and a superior.

From her scenic path, she could see the tall buildings and many airships of Vale beyond Beacon's cliff.

' _Are you down there right now?'_

The cool air was suddenly freezing.

A window was slammed shut somewhere behind her, Blake had pressed herself against a wall before she realized what it was - she grit her teeth when she did.

' _Way to not act suspicious.'_

She returned to her walk after making sure no one had seen her moment of panic.

This was only getting worse. The need to know ate at her restlessly, and now she was slipping. Her new life was not yet so secure that she could afford to make a mistake and draw attention.

She ached for the day her team could talk about these things and fix them together.

On top of her lack of information, was her fear of what exactly James Black and his clients, or even the White Fang, might know of her.

Her blackmailer had made it sound as if only he had the evidence of her past crimes. With him seemingly dead, it only made sense that his killer would hold the picture now. But what about Black's clients? Or any underlings her blackmailer had? For all she knew, the man could not have been killed, even.

For all she knew, Adam was on his way.

Blake rubbed her arms hard to ward off the cold and walked a little faster.

She had to know. That's the long and short of it. No matter what, she had to know before something horrible caught her off-guard and cost her everything.

But none of her options was particularly appealing.

The first idea that came to mind was to investigate the crime scenes, but her talk with Yang had made this incredibly more difficult than it would have been.

For that, Blake was honestly thankful. Being caught trespassing at a crime scene tentatively linked to the Fang would be the end of everything.

Another moment of thought had her considering the police reports. But even if she could somehow get her hands on those, the effort far outweighed the potential reward unless there was something exceptional at play.

Waiting for the next killing and hoping for a clue was not an option. She would go crazy just sitting around.

Calling Black's number was unlikely to end well, but it was an option if all else failed. The man had let her go for a reason – an unknown one, but a reason all the same.

Then again… his was not the only contact she'd memorized over the years.

Most of her informants from her terrorist days had never seen her face or learned her name. She had no way of knowing if the Fang knew of them all, or if they had been notified of her desertion and received instructions on what to do if she ever made contact again.

Limiting the list to those she knew would work for money and held no loyalty to the cause or had enough safety measures to work despite the circumstances reduced her sources by more than half, but the risk was minimal with the right inquiry.

It would not do to be too precise, that would send a flare to anyone on her trail. And if the question was too vague then so would the answer.

Unfortunately, that ruled out anything about James Black and his group. Unless they were a big enough concern for the Fang to show up in a superficial investigation.

But she could live with that, for now.

Intercontinental calls normally could only be done in a CCT Tower. Special permissions were granted for special circumstances, like some Huntsman missions or discussions between powerful people.

Messages, however, could be transmitted whenever the bandwidth was not being taken up by prioritized communications.

She pulled out her scroll, doing her best to recall all their protocols and keywords, and considered how to get the most out of each individual contact. She typed and deleted drafts until she was satisfied and sent them.

Blake was almost done when she realized the door to the dorm building was just in front of her. She checked the time.

 _'They'll be ready for bed now.'_

But the girls that made up her team were not the sort to wind down quickly, to Weiss' constant frustration and her own hidden delight.

 _'They can wait a little more.'_

A few steps took her out of the way, in case someone came through, and out of the light so she would not look like an idiot who got locked out. She leaned against the wall, ensured no one was watching, and went back to her messages.

* * *

AN: Believe me, this delay hurt me as much as you. First there were finals to get through, then a surprise three-week trip to the middle of nowhere, and I discovered too late that nowhere has no internet connection (because that might have made it bearable, I think), and now the holiday break is over. I managed to get on this before the boredom sapped me of my motivation and will to live.

But seeing my inbox as soon as I could and finding all those reviews and follows and favorites got me to finish the chapter and post it despite certainly being filled with errors.

I sincerely thank you for all the support. Reading through your opinions, praise or critique, helps more than I can say.


	5. Cats

**AN: This was supposed to be Harry's first chapter. Then my PC died and this became Harry's POV companion story when I decided Harry's chapters would make the mystery pointless. Then it became filler to set up some new characters and problems. Somehow, it became this.**

 **On the bright side, I have a lot of future scenes all done unless I go changing things again like an idiot.**

* * *

Schoolwork was strange in Beacon.

The errant thought was not the first to cross her mind, but it was the one that convinced Blake she needed a break. With a muted sigh, she leaned back in her seat until her back popped and closed her eyes.

One unexpected advantage of spending more time with her team was how much easier her classes became.

In Yang's ongoing effort to bring her closer to the team, she had been asked to help the sisters with their Grimm Studies homework. Blake replied she had not finished it either, and in a handful of minutes found herself in the middle of homework-slash-study session with the rest of RWBY and their friends' team, JNPR.

Ren, who had already done the paper, let them have a look at it and shared some notes while Weiss and Pyrrha worked ahead on an assignment for Oobleck and Jaune caught Nora up on something from one of their less… memorable classes.

She meant no insult to the professors, of course. One did not get hired for such a role in the prestigious Beacon Academy on accident.

But it did seem as if some of their courses were much more clearly useful for their chosen profession than others. Knowledge on the different creatures of Grimm, for example, could prove life-saving. Economy and Finance, on the other hand…

Additionally, most students had no sort of choice on what courses they took during the earlier of their four years in the Academy. That meant someone had sat down somewhere and thought 'You know what Huntresses really need nowadays? More math!'.

Now, she was not lacking in brains or dedication, as her scores so far proved, and the professor had raised some good points in favor of the subject, but that did not mean she enjoyed the rather mundane nature of it.

Even Professor Peach's class felt more relevant, boring as only plants could be.

And yet, she had not heard of any students having to retake a course or being held back. As far as she knew, the only purpose of their academic results was to provide a ranking at the end of the semester. Would a village in peril ask to see her grades as she stepped between it and a horde of monsters?

It could be worse, at least. She could be two years behind everyone else like Ruby. The poor girl spent almost all her free time, since one of the extra lectures she and Jaune attended lately, slowly reading up on what she'd missed by being moved ahead.

"Is everything alright, Blake?" Ren interrupted her thoughts.

That immediately caught Yang's attention. Blake could spot the sudden scrutiny despite the blond girl's attempt at subtlety.

She made sure to inject sincerity in her response.

"It's nothing," she lazily closed her eyes and massaged the skin over them. "I'd been falling behind a bit - spent all of yesterday working too."

Yang returned to her work, her mood temporarily lifted from the work-induced dullness. Blake pretended not to notice.

Ren hummed, his face blank as ever, and offered what comfort he could.

"Friday's classes are usually more relaxed because of Combat Practice." He turned his head and caught Nora's eye quickly before speaking to her again, "Also, since most of us are so new to Vale, our team is planning to go explore the city this Sunday - I am sure Jaune means to invite your team along."

She had to blink in surprise at that. Not only was this the longest she'd heard JNPR's quiet boy speak being directed at her, but it sounded like he was making the effort to ensure she tagged along for a social outing.

Blake could not remember the last time someone had invited her to anything so… normal.

Was that sad?

"We'll be there!" Yang was quicker to recover with a wide smile. If there ever was a sign that she was burning herself out, this had to be it.

Ren nodded politely, then bent down over his own work. Yang gave her one last excited look and did the same.

She eyed her own warily. It still lacked any form of conclusion, but the body was mostly there. Just as it had been for the past… how long had it been like that?

With a disappointed sigh, she shoved it in her bag and pulled out her scroll to find out exactly how long… then promptly forgot all about her exhaustion.

She was almost out of her chair before she could force herself to stop and check that none of her friends had noticed her reaction.

After finding nothing unusual in them, she made a show of tiredly collecting her things and mumbled a 'see you later' while waving in response to the farewells sent her way.

She kept up the slouch and bored face until she reached one her favorite, more private, spots near the back of the library. There she put her back to a wall and retrieved her scroll with eager fingers.

' _Sorry it took so long, things changed and I had to wait until the reports started making sense again._

 _Turns out the police somehow discovered and raided a White Fang recruitment operation in Vale a little while ago. Low level stuff but a few veterans were captured and the whole op was scattered.'_

She hadn't learned anything about that. Which was not too surprising - the Council would want to keep how close the terrorists really were from the population unless it was some great victory to feel smug about.

' _A former Faunus extremist turned White Fang malcontent agent by the name of Addison Rinder made the most of the chaos to cut and run with a few others. Nobody knew, of course, until all sorts of undesirables started popping up dead and branded by the Fang._

 _That's when she began reaching out to people, sharing what she knew and declaring her desertion. She also blamed the White Fang and had enough evidence that no one believes it's a frame anymore. It hasn't made life any easier in the Faunus districts, but with both sides of the law hunting for these murderers life isn't really any easier anywhere._

 _The people I have in the Fang deny responsibility, as they always do when it's not convenient for them or they just have no idea.'_

That wasn't what she wanted to hear, even knowing that to hope for an abundantly obvious framing was naive. But it was also not completely damning, this evidence could easily be a play for protection.

' _Then Rinder tried to build bridges with Liam Fink and never came back. The man is bad news, he has ties to the Families in Mistral and deals a lot in human traffic but his operation is small. He's been moving onto Faunus now, and made some comment about his new prize pet. No one cares enough about the deserter to rescue her._

 _Her band of runaways has gone to ground, and if Rinder is still alive, she's probably wishing she wasn't.'_

It suddenly dawned on her that she had seen the woman.

During her failed infiltration, the brunette with the tail talking on her scroll. She had been too focused on her surroundings to catch more details about her, for all the good it did her in the end.

And now that woman, who'd talked of house-shopping in Vacuo with so much hope, was captured and on her way to a terrible fate.

Oh, she knew exactly what happened to victims of human trafficking. It was not unheard of the further you got from the Kingdoms and their law enforcement. Even if it was usually labeled for the public under a more palatable name like 'Banditry'.

It wasn't so rare for small settlements or nomad caravans to vanish. With so many already falling prey to the Grimm, a few here and there went unnoticed until a bandit camp got cleared out and their captives were discovered.

And it wasn't so rare either for immoral economical groups to hire bandits to inconvenience the investments of their competitors. These mercenaries, who had little use for money, usually took payment in a variety of goods to cover their needs.

Some more twisted than others.

Blake had seen a few such cases in her time with the White Fang. For all the hatred humans held for Faunus, nobody could deny the exotic appearance of many.

She had justified murder to herself a few times in the past. But fewer were the times she felt so little guilt.

"Oh..."

A small sound escaped her when she realized that could be the price of her freedom.

She did not know if Black had shared the blackmail he used to ensure she would stay out of his way. But if his client had been taken and her group disbanded, he had to be either dead or out of a job.

If this Liam Fink or most anyone else saw the picture it would have little meaning.

The number of people out there who might both have the it and the knowledge to use it was possibly down to either one or zero.

Blake wanted to hope for zero, but that would mean hoping for one death and one woman who would spend the rest of her life as a slave.

She needed air.

Some students turned when she moved past them, but they spared her little attention. Steps somewhere between a jog and speedy walk took her to one of Beacon's gardens and the first bench she found there.

Blake just… didn't know.

There were so many things. Essential things that she absolutely had to know but didn't.

Who had the picture of her in the White Fang? What was the Fang doing in Vale? Had they changed so much that they might be behind the murders? What was Adam planning? What happened to James Black?

Her hands shook as she brought up her scroll and looked at is as if the answers might suddenly pop on the screen.

Well, she could at least solve one of those questions.

The roof of the rundown car repair shop was too windy. She would not hear any conversation below.

Mechanical tools whirred and clanked beneath her feet while piles of rusted junk all over the two-story building creaked and groaned as the wind rushed over them.

A few blocks down the street, the warehouse where she'd been captured looked as abandoned as before.

For the past hour, she had moved steadily closer at a snail's pace. There had yet to be a sign of Black or any sort of surveillance but she stayed careful.

Blake peered carefully into the alley below her. The wind was strong enough that she had to lower herself and brace both hands on the edge of the roof.

Closer to the street, a figure covered in rags and dirt slept in the space between two dumpsters. She had watched him for a while until she could be sure it was nothing but an unfortunate homeless man trying to get some rest.

Far more interesting were the men directly underneath her.

Bent over the open hood of a beaten old truck was a man sporting a dark green jacket and bright red hair.

' _Not visibly Faunus, unarmed if there's not a holster covered by the jacket.'_

Opposite him, another used retractable claws to open one of the boxes at his feet and cram as many weapons as he could fit in the trunk. Anxious eyes a duller shade of amber than her own jumping to every passing car from his hairy face.

' _Faunus, very armed, very jumpy.'_

To anyone one passing him on a sidewalk he could have seemed a large but ordinary human.

She had worried for a moment that the White Fang had already moved on the deserters, but then she remembered seeing a redhead of that same tone in the warehouse before she focused on Addison taking her call.

Besides, if the White Fang had gotten here first she probably would have found some bodies and fire.

In truth, this find was extremely lucky. She did not have to approach a stronghold on full alert with this opportunity literally right under her nose. She didn't have to call James Black and surrender her information to him and his unknown loyalties and the blackmail he still held over her either. The very moment she had realized this she had almost jumped down in relief.

All she had to do was say she wanted to help and knew what had happened to their leader. No way these Faunus would be willing to abandon their missing friend.

Whatever else they may have become, the White Fang was a family. Blake knew that time and hardship had changed much about their methods, but they would remain the same at the core.

Her remaining hesitation was due to the more visibly nervous of the two also having a whole arsenal within arm's reach. Even if she was almost certain her fellow former terrorists would not just shoot her on sight - especially if they remembered her as she did the one in the jacket.

But as she was still not sure how she survived the last time she came across this group, she decided to be as safe as possible. With a deep breath she relaxed her grip on the edge of the roof and settled down.

Blake saw three possibilities in front of her.

First, she could jump down waving a white flag and hope the burlier Faunus was not scared enough to shoot before hearing her out.

Second, since they were clearly in a hurry, she could wait until they finished loading the truck and approach when they were at a safe distance from the guns.

Or third, more Faunus could come join these two and either make things easier or more difficult.

The wind kept blowing and the men kept working, but no burst of inspiration struck her.

In the end, her thoughts chased one another in circles until the trunk slamming closed chose for her.

Finished with the loading, the larger man walked around the vehicle to talk with the other. Blake strained all four ears but could not make out anything over the wind. Their conversation seemed short and to the point, with the redhead returning to his work and the dark-haired one leaving to enter a door on the alley wall.

With an outcome better than she had hoped for in front of her, Blake did not try to stop herself from quickly leaping down to land behind the apparent mechanic.

She made sure to rise with her hands up in a gesture of peace and speak quickly. Not that it stopped the surprised Faunus from jumping onto the engine block and throw a hand out as if to ward her off.

"I'm not here to hurt you!" She exclaimed, staring into his eyes. "I know what happened to Addison Rinder and I want to help."

The man stayed frozen for a short time, staring back wide-eyed and breathing hard. Then, slowly, he removed himself from his impromptu seat and looked all around her and behind himself. Blake kept still with her hands up and her eyes on his.

He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. He swallowed once and visibly collected himself.

When he met her eyes again she had the weirdest feeling that she would have been safer approaching the gun loader.

"You... " he stopped for a second, his eyes flicked behind her shoulder and up to the roof she'd come from, "You know where she is?"

At least he was listening.

"No, but I know who took her and-"

'Click'

There is something about the disengaging safety of a gun that gives pause even to someone entirely unafraid of one.

She froze mid-sentence, shocked by this unexpected threat but painfully aware that any sudden movement could escalate this out of control.

A very slow turn of her head surprised her even more than Adam Taurus standing there could have.

' _The hobo?'_

"Girly, you must think I'm some kind of stupid if that disguise is supposed to fool me." The man before her spoke, his casual tone sharply contrasting the previous one.

From inside his jacket he withdrew a small handgun and raised it. In what was either a mistake or a move to give her false confidence, he kept her directly between the two armed men.

She was surprised and tense but not scared. With her semblance, it would be easy enough to dodge. She could even make them hit each other.

But they were supposed to be allies! Both on the run from the White Fang and trying to live out their lives as best they could. She didn't want to hurt them.

"I am not trying to fool anyone." She tried to relax her stance, but her tense muscles would not obey when staring down a gun barrel.

"You put on a ribbon and forgot to change your colors, so I'll believe you aren't trying too hard."

It took her a moment to look down and realize, in her haste to build herself a new life, she had never actually found new clothes since leaving the Fang.

'Of all the stupid…'

She could almost feel a noose tightening around her. These Faunus had already been discovered by the White Fang once, the only thing that kept them alive then had been-

"I know James Black, and he knows me." A day ago, she had been hoping they would never meet again, now she was name-dropping him. "I know he's at the warehouse and was on my way to meet him."

She just needed these men to listen. Once they weren't suspicious of her she could prove they were all on the same side.

"Warehouse is quite hard to miss, I'd say." He had become more focused the moment he heard the name, that had to count for something. "Why take this detour if you're old friends?"

"We're not friends." Blake knew better than to stay silent for long to avoid suspicion, but she needed this misunderstanding over and done with and her frustration was rising.

"Business acquaintances?"

"You could say that, it's complicated," the way that came out just irritated her more.

"He _is_ always so secretive..."

Blake knew this man was fishing now, feeling confident with his iron sights set on her and his friend as backup. But she had no patience for it and every second that passed like this was another where something could go horribly wrong.

She lowered her hands, dropping the subservience and embracing the fact that even with all their perceived advantages she was not really threatened by a pair of guns. "Look, I have a lead on where your leader could be and reason to believe she is in a lot of danger. Are you going to abandon her when she needs you?"

He frowned at her a few more seconds.

"What's your name?"

Blake Belladonna had not been a well-known name in the White Fang. But that was no reason to go spreading it around. And who knew if her popularity had increased as a traitor? She saw these people as allies but she couldn't risk some desperate soul connecting her with an opportunity like a large bounty.

On the other hand, if Black was as good as he seemed to be, he already knew half her old names.

"Donna," she hissed.

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a scroll. Eyes still on her, he pushed a button and brought it to his ear.

She had expected his volume to be set low, but her tense body still coiled imperceptibly tighter when an indecipherable whisper came across.

On the other side of that call was a man whose abilities had kept her up at night. Who with almost absolute certainty could destroy her life with a few taps on a screen.

Who, it dawned on her, stood to gain if his previous employer was removed from the equation.

If there were not two guns on her to reinforce the severity of the situation, she would have slapped herself for not thinking it earlier.

If her previous - brief and now dead - blackmailer could be believed, Black was the only reason this group had survived as long as it had. In the absence of the woman who brought them all together and gave them a chance to escape the White Fang, it was likely that they would turn to him for safety.

It filled her with a righteous fury to think these desperate Faunus could be manipulated towards whatever goals the mercenary wished.

The alleged White Fang murders immediately came to mind, but those had been going on longer than Addison's abduction. Still, whatever he was ordering them to do could not be in their best interests.

Her focus returned to the man standing before her as he spoke up.

"Hey, got a 'Donna' here who says she knows you and what happened to Rinder."

The answer was as inaudible as before but the redheaded man remained on guard and turned an eye on her.

"Black hair, pale skin, yellow eyes," he took a sniff in her direction, "some type of cat Faunus."

If there had been any chance that Black hadn't known that from the first time they met, it was gone now. She was almost angry over that, but then remembered he had seen her picture in the White Fang and that was much worse.

This time the answer seemed to slightly calm him. Blake tried to make herself relax a bit too.

"Yeah… ok, be there in a minute."

She had hoped there would be a way through this without running into him again, but she understood it was very likely the only way any of the rogues would consider hearing her out.

Now she was walking into a room where the only man who didn't think she was a murdering terrorist was not only blackmailing her to not walk into the room, but also probably manipulating the rest.

She would need to make sure everyone heard what she knew about Addison. The chance of getting her back would be more important to them than whatever Black had them doing.

With something resembling a plan in mind, she felt more confident waiting for the man to put his scroll away.

His gun remained on her as took one last look around the alley, most likely looking for some sort of trick. She waited quietly.

"Alright, stay in front of me and don't try anything," he gestured to the same rusted metal door the bigger Faunus had left through before. He looked over her shoulder and spoke to the homeless man, "Thanks, Finn."

Nine times out of ten, Blake would have come to her senses and ran like hell. Maybe ninety-nine out of a hundred. But she had failed to stop her friends in the White Fang from turning to hatred and violence, and to walk away now would doom Rinder and leave her friends dependent on a man who would care little for them.

Plus, a single gunman unaware of her semblance was really a small threat to her.

The door opened too smoothly for its appearance, beyond it she saw a short hallway with another open door leading to descending stairs.

She'd known they had been using the labyrinthine underground passages to move around, and as the man directed her through them now she knew it went beyond that.

Despite the smell and various puddles, this entrance was fortified.

There was just enough light for her to see clearly, heavy debris littered the floor almost to the point of slowing them down, and the tunnels branching off from the one she traveled were sealed off with so much garbage it would impossible to dig through quietly.

Even a team from Beacon trying to storm through here would find themselves blind, stumbling, and lost.

The echoes of their footsteps reminded her of her own team's mission into those Schnee mines. With how everything had turned out, she counted herself extremely lucky to have come out mostly unharmed and with her secret intact.

She wondered for a moment how Yang would react to what she was doing before dismissing it. Her last excuse would buy her a few hours at least until her partner grew curious. If Blake knew herself at all, the time limit would be the only thing keeping her from leading the rescue of Addison Rinder.

That was good. She would help these people because it was the right thing to do, but she kept in mind that they were in a dangerous situation and she could not compromise her stay at Beacon.

And that was before considering the weapons stashed behind every other turn and explosives at the exit. Dangerous indeed.

"Don't mind those," said the man behind her, "depending on what you've got to say we might get to remove all the bombs around this place."

The statement itself did a poor job of calming her, but the casualness of his tone let her feel a bit more reassured that her plan could work.

She knew she was under the warehouse because the room she entered was in a much better state than the tunnels. Smooth concrete replaced old bricks, the air was fresher, electrical lighting glowed overhead and the holes in the walls that presumably lead to more tunnels like hers looked like someone had cut the wall away instead of just blasting through it.

The redhead removed his sights from her back once inside, and used his other hand to gesture to the metal stairs leading to the upper floor.

Across the room and up the stairs she went, swallowing her last-second doubts with a hand on the doorknob.

As deep as she appeared to be, Blake knew she could incapacitate her escort and retreat back through the tunnels to be lost in a crowd in a minute or two. If she chose to ignore that Black could probably find her and definitely force her back with the picture, she could pretend she was in control here.

"Black says you're that girl we caught and let go," she turned her head to meet the gaze of the man she'd idly been planning to disarm. "As I remember, you snuck into our base and he found you lurking over Rinder with that sword of yours in hand."

She could not honestly remember if she'd had a chance to draw Gambol Shroud, but she turned more fully towards him and wondered what he was getting at. He must have noticed her curiosity, because he put his gun away and leaned on a shoulder against the wall.

"My point is: the only way he and Rinder let you go after that is if they didn't think you're our enemy, so you can stop looking like you're walking into an ambush. It's making me antsy."

It wasn't so much the unexpected pep talk that made her open the door, but the fact that he'd tried. It reminded her of what she already knew about these Faunus.

They were good people in a bad situation. Like countless others trying to make a difference but not knowing how and refusing to accept the Fang's way as the only one.

She could not do anything for every lost Faunus out there, but she could save these. She just had to be brave.

With a final nod, to herself as much as him, she marshalled her courage, turned the knob, and pushed forward.

Her first, brave step into the warehouse was quickly aborted and she almost fell backwards against her escort. A young woman with canine ears atop her head rushed past her, overburdened by so many boxes that Blake immediately dismissed the possibility of an attack.

The other girl did not stop to apologize or even look back. Shocked, Blake took a second to remind herself of the situation and her goal here; but she failed to spot James Black among the dozen or so Faunus running around moving equipment and supplies.

She only recognized the gun loader from back in the alley. Now he was unpacking disassembled assault rifles from a large container branded with a very familiar snowflake symbol and repacking them into a shopping cart while another man disguised them with scrap metal from a pile on the floor.

She must have stared for too long. Suddenly the controlled chaos slowed and the noise went with it until everyone was staring at her, except for one thin man cross-legged on a table with a scroll in one hand and a notebook in the other.

While Blake had considered something like this happening, she did not expect it before she'd even had a chance to speak.

She tried to do just that, to get a hold of herself and repeat the statement she'd given in the alley. A knot formed in her throat and all that came out was a quiet grunt. Attention was never something she had been comfortable with, she had even trained to avoid it. All the stares made her hands clammy and her back hunched subconsciously. Whispers broke out.

 _'Come on, speak.'_

Again, she wondered why it had never occurred to her to throw away the pseudo-uniform she wore for many of her missions in the White Fang.

She was reluctantly – and very briefly – thankful to the enemy she'd been expecting for saving her from her social anxieties.

James Black stood from a seat she hadn't noticed before. There was no time to criticize her most recent mistake before he clapped his hands twice and called out, "Enough with the suspense, people, there's too much work to do and our newest informant is on the clock."

Some looks sent her way were mistrusting and other hopeful, but everyone obeyed quickly. Even the man who'd walked her through the tunnel went back down the stairs and shut the door behind him. She felt the opportunity to turn the crowd against the mercenary slip away from her unresponsive fingers.

"And you, my newest friend," he walked towards her relaxed, like she was no threat to him at all. She would have been offended, but he wouldn't be wrong. He gestured, "Why don't we step into my office?"

She swallowed the last of her hesitation and nodded.

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 **AN2: I am unhappy with this chapter. Am I alone in that? It feels wrong but it's now been months since I decided this needed to happen. This is me just shoving it out of the way so I can move forward again.**


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